


Steel Plated

by easternCriminal



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Steam Powered Giraffe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, but i wrote this anyway, fun fact: I haven't watched any mcu movies ever, ive read enough fics i get the idea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:27:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 25,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23282524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easternCriminal/pseuds/easternCriminal
Summary: “And what exactly is this help?” Natasha was clinical in her speech, but there was a certain iciness to it that sent a shiver down Steve’s spine.“Equipment.” Fury replied tersely. “Some technology that the military owned for a stretch of time, we’ve acquired their contracts.”“Better be good technology.” Tony scoffed. “If it’s something that you clearly don’t think I can create.”
Comments: 54
Kudos: 74





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> honestly idk where this is going or if I'll finish it. Not related to my other crossover Blue Hues. It's like a different take on how they could meet if that makes sense. The Avenger crew might be a little ooc, but they'll warm up. Just give them some time. I've never watched any of MCU but i wrote this anyway cuz it's the apocalypse when else would I write this?

“What, do you think that we can’t handle this?” Steve asked, the hurt and insult clear in his voice. Fury’s face was impassive and betrayed no emotion at the whine. Steve could already tell that his fellow teammates felt the same for the most part. Tony was making no attempt to conceal the discontent he was feeling, face in a frown and a half sneer on his face. Bruce had a small frown on his face, hands a knot as his fingers interlocked and clenched together as he healthily managed his frustration. Even from where he was sitting Steve could see the careful even breaths that the doctor was taking. He couldn’t get a read on Natasha - but he could get an idea from the way that Clint seemed so nervous standing next to her. As if ready to run or stop her - not that Natasha would ever let her emotions go like that. She was far too in control of herself. But the fact remained that Clint was clearly picking up something that he wasn’t.

“Don’t bring your emotions into this. We are cleaning up a mess here, and frankly we’re short staffed.” Fury said, eyes seeming to narrow just a little bit more. Steve closed his mouth, but still felt insulted at the clear distrust. “We are trying to clean out Hydra. They’re a deep stain in the world, in this city. We need all the help we can get.” 

“And what exactly is this help?” Natasha was clinical in her speech, but there was a certain iciness to it that sent a shiver down Steve’s spine. 

“Equipment.” Fury replied tersely. “Some technology that the military owned for a stretch of time, we’ve acquired their contracts.” 

“Better be good technology.” Tony scoffed. “If it’s something that you clearly don’t think I can create.” 

“It’s part of a set, but for now you will only get one of them.” He explained, not rising to Tony’s tone. “The other two we’ve given to some other teams.” 

“Do we get to see this mythical weapon?” Hawkeye asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“This is an expensive contract. I’m giving you this, and I’m expecting to see big results. You will become experts in using this. Do you understand?” Fury doesn’t actually wait for a response, and frankly Steve is pretty sure that if he had it would have opened him up for at least three snarky comments. “You will find it in the other room. I have other things I need to attend to.” He turned, his coat dramatically flowed behind him, as he entered the elevator. 

Steve didn’t like the Shield bases. They were uncomfortable, having a sterile feel to them. He much prefered when they used Stark Tower as their base of operations - they had used it so often that it felt like a second home to him. Not that he would ever tell that to Tony, man had enough of an ego as is. 

“Well, we should go and familiarize ourselves with whatever this is.” Bruce stood up, stretching. “Although I hope it’s not a weapon. That won’t be much use to me.” Steve nodded. Bruce didn’t fight when they were hunting down Hydra. Really he didn’t fight if he could avoid it, and the other’s were understanding, doing their best to keep him out of fights. Instead he helped them behind the scenes, using his mind instead of his muscles. 

“Yeah, if only so I can shove it up Fury’s-”

“Tony.” Natasha said, stopping Tony in his tracks. “Do not take this personally.” Steve glanced at Clint, whose eyebrows had shot up. So clearly Natasha already was taking it personally. That was Clint’s ‘practice what you preach’ look.

“The sooner we head into the other room, the sooner we can familiarize ourselves with whatever this is. Fury’s vagueness doesn’t sit easy with me, especially if he intends for us to use this item effectively.” He followed Bruce, the other’s close behind. 

It was one of the lounging/planning rooms on the base. A large screen off to the side, several couches and a coffee table. Mini fridge. Weapon’s cabinet. A large window that looked out over the city, where one could stand and contemplate as their teammates bickered about tactics before turning around dramatically and declaring their own plan of attack. 

On the coffee table sat a giant wooden crate. A crowbar sitting innocently on top of it. The sides were plastered with all kinds of writings and warning in a myriad of languages. Hawkeye strode forward confidently as Bruce halted to inspect the side, picking up the crowbar and immediately getting to work on opening it. 

“Woah, woah, woah!” Steve held up his hands, rushing forward. “Should we really be opening it before checking all this other stuff?” He gestured to the inscriptions. Hawkeye gave a small sigh. 

“Do you really think Shield would just leave us alone in this room with something we could screw up just by the act of opening it?” He grunted as he continued to wedge the crowbar along the top piece of wood until finally it gave. “Come on, help me open our Christmas present.” 

Steve hesitated for a moment, but ultimately he trusted his teammates and Clint did have a point. He grabbed the side of the wooden panel and helped to move it away. The gasp from his other teammates sent him into a state of higher alert and both him and Hawkeye quickly dropped the lid on the floor, moving over so that they could see the contents of the package. Guns? Some kind of super computer? Maybe a new found power core for things?

It was like peering into a casket. The wooden paneling. Whatever was in there wasn’t quite packaging peanuts, but did have a certain light blue coloring, and if you looked quick you could mistake them for flowers. The figure inside of the box was submerged in them. A robot made of some kind of silver, gleaming metal. Dark lines showed where metal plates met, creating geometric angular patterns across his face and around his skull. He wore a dark jumpsuit, like one of the kinds that the lower end Shield employees wore. 

“A robot?” Tony let out an anguished exclamation. “Do they think I can’t make a robot?!” 

“Do we turn it on?” Natasha pondered.

“Maybe they want us to deconstruct it and make more?” Bruce put his own theory into the ring, eyes intently analyzing what could be seen of the robot. A muffled sound like a humming grew louder, some kind of ticking began as well, and Natasha didn’t even cover they way that she now had a knife in her hand, probably pulled from her boot. 

The robot’s eyes opened. 

They were a glowing vibrant green, turning in their sockets and taking in the figures that loomed over it. 

“I would prefer to stay in one piece.” It’s voice was rich and deep. As it talked it raised it’s arms out of the sea of packing materials it was submerged in. Slowly, like testing the water in a pool, it moved its elbows and then each finger individually. Seeming satisfied with its assessment the robot pulled itself into a sitting position, and then after another moment, exited the box. 

The rest of Steve’s teammates moved quickly out of the way to provide space for the robot. It was wearing thick and heavy boots, and some kind of vapor came off of its body, sneaking through its joints and gaps in its plating from somewhere within it. It idly picked out a few pieces of the packing material that had stuck to its clothing, carefully put it back in the box. Each movement was stilted, as if scripted out, and though they were smooth enough it was the sudden stops and aborted look to its actions that made it not quite passing. Although while it had come out much more than a few had landed on the ground, but it didn’t do anything about those ones. 

“Who are you?” Clint asked, head tilted slightly. 

“What are you?” Natasha corrected. She had learned that sometimes that was the more important question. 

The robot stood with perfect, eerie posture. Now that it was standing Steve could see six short fin like protrusions sticking out of the back of its uniform. From the other side of the robot he could see the way that Tony stared at it, as if he was already thinking of ways he could have made a better one. Clearly still nursing his wounded ego. 

“My name is The Spine. I am an automaton currently contracted to the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. That is all that is currently relevant.” It had little inflection and little in the way of expression as it spoke. Frankly so far it was making Natasha look like a vivacious young lady full of life and energy. 

“What- this is- what does Fury think we can do with this thing?” Tony asked in exasperation, throwing his hands up in the air. 

“I mean it could… maybe it has a connection to Hydra? Made by them perhaps?” Bruce tried, hand on his chin. 

“I was not made by Hydra. My creator is irrelevant to the current interests of Shield.” It replied, causing Bruce to jump slightly. 

“And should we decide we require that information?” Natasha asked. 

“At that time, should that time come, we may discuss the possibility.” The Spine said cooly. 

“What can you do to help us?” Steve tried to ask it kindly, although he was fairly sure that it was lost of the robot who seemed to have the personality of a piece of toast. It looked like they had been given some kind of fairly basic soldier robot with a maybe decent AI system ingrained in it. Probably why Fury had said it was part of a set - more people to take the canon fire. 

“Tactics, fighting, surveillance, technological inference.” It rattled off. After standing, it’s eyes had remained facing forward, not even turning to look at the different people that addressed it. And something about those eyes bothered Steve, though he was unable to put his finger on it. 

“Nothing we can’t already do.” Clint muttered under his breath, loud enough for all of them to hear. 

“Fury told us to familiarize ourselves with the technology.” Natasha said. 

“So we open it up.” Tony casually let the words slip off his tongue, and for the first time something that approximated a reaction shook through the robot. An extra burst of vapor came off of it, most noticeably from its fins, and its shoulders hunched up slightly, the sound of metal clacking against metal as many of the gaps in it’s plating suddenly butted together. 

“The contract that binds me to be here also prohibits any deconstruction or adjustments made to myself.” Steve didn’t miss the frustrated sigh that Tony let out at that. 

“Then I guess we’ll need you to show us for yourself what you can do? Fighting seems like a good place to start.” Bruce said calmly, ever the mediator. The robot gave a small nod, the other’s muttering words of agreement. 

“I guess we should get into some sparring clothes then.” Clint said, looking down at the jeans and t-shirt he was currently wearing. 

“Let’s plan to meet in training room omega in about ten minutes?” Steve said, looking at the others for approval. “Alright, sounds good. And robot, uh, The Spine, will you need any help find your way?” He glanced over at the metal man. Face still largely expressionless. 

“I have the map of the facilities.” The robot replied tersely. 

“Sounds good - we’ll see you there tin can!” Tony declared, heading off with the other’s to their temporary rooms. 

The robot began to move as well, steps deliberate and just not quite human enough. Each time a foot came in contact with the ground it kind of cushioned the fall more than an average person would. Idly Steve wondered if it was a mechanical thing or a habit it had picked up from somewhere. 

It stopped though, face turning towards the window, optics within its sockets trained on the city that lay before them. And while it’s face remained the mask of neutrality that it had maintained thus far, it’s eyes… Steve knew where he had seen those eyes before. The realization came to him in a flash. They were the eyes of a man who had been through war, been through hell, and was oh so tired. And sad. In the military Steve had seen those eyes too many times, on seemingly every face he passed. And for the longest time, it was those eyes that had looked at him in the mirror every morning. 

Maybe there was more to this robot than Steve had anticipated. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Spine spars against some of the others

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A second chapter because originally this was going to be part of the first chapter and then I realized that it was getting long enough it could be it's own.

Sparring outfits for most of them was sweatpants and a loose fitting t-shirt. Natasha wore leggings instead and an athletic shirt that was much better at wicking away sweat than the cotton that Clint usually wore. He wanted to catch a moment alone with Natasha - he knew that she was feeling something as much as she constantly tried to make it seem like she had never had an emotion in her entire life. He wasn’t sure but he had a few hunches. It could be the robot reminded her of her youth somehow, maybe another metal man like Ultron made her alarm bells go off, maybe it was how Fury seemed to be unimpressed with their current progress on attacking Hydra. It would even just be the thought of Hydra and how they were like a bar of soap they were tried to hold in their hands. Constantly slipping away when they tried to grab it. 

By the time Clint arrived at the training room the others were all already standing around, conferring with one another. Off to the side, looking like some poor shmuck in a bad high school drama show, was the robot. It hadn’t changed clothes, still in the dark jumpsuit and boots, and was leaning up against one of the walls. Well… not exactly leaning, more like standing directly against it. It’s eyes were closed though, and Clint wondered if that meant it currently had no objectives or something. Maybe they were supposed to give it like orders? He didn’t know, was honestly a little uncomfortable with the whole situation. Fury thought they needed this thing to be more effective with their Hydra hunt, but right now they had pretty much the dream team. Super strength, tech, stealth, combat and weaponry and guns and whatever. They had experts in pretty much all of those fields, covered pretty much all of those areas. There had to be something that this robot could contribute, and honestly that meant that it was dangerous in some way. 

They just had to find out how. 

“Aw, you waited for little old me?” Clint asked, batting his eyes. He was barefoot, like the rest of them, and frankly willing to spar with anyone to get his blood pumping and warm up his cold little toesies. 

“Let’s get this show on the road.” Tony declared. “We’ll probably just test out things one at a time. Everyone can take something. I mean obvious I’ll be taking weaponry. Steve you can test out how good it is when on the defense. Clint can see what it’s like when focusing on offense. Natasha can do a proper spar with it after that. And Bruce…”

“-Will focus on analyzing it from the sidelines.” Steve said, and Clint could see the sigh in relief that Bruce let out. Fighting wasn’t something he enjoyed, and Clint knew that Bruce was sometimes worried that they thought he wasn’t as valuable like he was, without the big green guy. But he was part of their team, and they valued Bruce as he was, no strings attached. 

“Let’s start with the combat.” Natasha said. “It’ll take a while to get a good practice range up for the technology section. Tony can work on that while we test out its combat abilities.” 

“What if I wanted to watch the show?” Tony whined. It took one look from Natasha though to quiet him, his jaw shutting with a click of his teeth. “I’ll go take care of the practice range.” He said, changing his tune and head to one of the other training rooms. 

Clint uneasily eyed the robot - it hadn’t moved at all the entire time throughout their conversation. Shifted from foot to foot. 

“Is, uh, is the robot on?” He asked hesitantly. Steve was already striding towards it, also seeming to see the difficulty in testing the robots abilities if it wasn’t actually active. 

“There’s got to be an on switch of some kind.” Steve muttered.

“Wait - we don’t know if you might accidentally trigger something!” Bruce cried out, lunging forward and grabbing Steve’s arm. “It could have an automatic violent response if we attempt to turn it on!” Natasha let out a small frustrated sigh. 

“Then how are we expected to activate it, much less work with this thing?” 

“You could start by asking me.” The deep baritone voice was unexpected, and Clint had to use all of his training with Natasha to stifle his flinch. Bruce and Steve didn’t have their training though, and surprise was obvious on their faces. The robot had opened its eyes and was no longer standing flat against the wall. There was the smallest glimmer of expression on its face, one of annoyance. It had been doing that everytime that Clint had looked at it. These micro expressions that Clint wasn’t sure anyone else was picking up. Frankly it seemed like they were purposefully hidden, downplayed, very similar to the way Natasha worked. 

“Ah, The Spine, you’re awake.” Natasha said, voice not betraying the surprise that Clint was pretty sure she felt. “We have decided how to evaluate your abilities. We’ll start with-”

“I heard.” The Spine clipped, cutting Natasha off. Steve and Bruce both sharply breathed in, sending frightened glances at Natasha. You didn’t just  _ interrupt  _ the Black Widow. But she wouldn’t lash out, not right now. Clint knew she wouldn’t do that before she’d had an assessment on it’s abilities. Her temper was sharp but precise. 

“Well let’s start with the defensive round then.” Bruce said, pulling out a notebook and gesturing for Steve to go to the middle of the room. He cast his eyes over to the robot, looking him up and down. “Mr. The Spine-”

“Just The Spine is fine.” 

“The Spine, we usually spar without shoes for softer impacts and less bruising. Would you be willing to remove your boots?” Bruce politely asked. 

“With all due respect Dr. Banner my feet are made of thick steel plating. The boots will be gentler.” The Spine said as it walked to the middle of the room as well, facing Steve. 

“Boots are good with me.” Steve said with a small smile. “We’re going to start off with just seeing how you deal with attacks coming at you. So try just to dodge or evade what I throw at you.” He lowered down into a fighting position. “Let me know when you’re ready.” 

“I’m ready.” The Spine replied, remaining standing straight up. Clint could see the hesitation in Steve, obviously not wanting to hurt the technology that they had been given, especially when it didn’t even appear to know how to fight from the looks of it. Maybe they should have asked it first whether it could fight. 

It had to be done though, and Steve gave a reluctant sigh before launching himself forward, throwing a punch. Night and Day, that was the difference that seemed to come over the robot. The movements that had been stilted and almost awkward suddenly were fluid and, dare Clint say it, graceful. It seemed nearly effortless the way that he dove and wove through each attack that Steve launched at him. Mesmerizing almost. The Spine had mentioned his feet were made of steel, and if the rest of him was as well - which would match his coloring - then he had to be heavy as all get out. The fact that he was able to move himself so quickly… Clint couldn’t even begin to wrap his mind around it. Bruce was furiously scribbling in his notebook like he just couldn’t write fast enough. 

At the end of the event Steve was standing, gasping, sweat rolling down his face. The Spine, after the fighting stopped, once again righted itself into a straight position. None of the fatigue showed on its face but the vapors were once again thick in the air, pumping out of the crevices of the robot, pouring out of the spines on its back and the vents on its cheeks. 

“What is coming off of you?” Bruce asked, coming forward eagerly and curiously. “Is it a biohazardous gas of some sort? Some sort of self defense mechanism from the fighting?” The robot looked over and Clint caught the small smirk on his face, just a hint of humor.

“No, it’s steam from my engine.” 

“Steam from your…” Bruce’s eyes were about the size of dinner plates as he looked at the robot with what appeared to be new eyes. “Are you telling me that you’re  _ steam  _ powered?” 

“The movement of my limbs requires steam from my boiler, yes.” The Spine was full on smiling at this point, clearly taking pride in the surprise on Bruce’s face. Even Natasha looked mildly surprised. Clint exchanged a look with Steve who shrugged helplessly - good to know he wasn’t the only one that had no idea why that was such a big deal. They had faced some crazy weapons made out of tesseracts and stuff, whatever the heck Tony had used to fuel Ultron, had fought full on gods for goodness sake. It felt like steam shouldn’t really be a surprise. 

Steve went to the side of the room, walking around in circles as he cooled down, grabbed a water bottle and took sips from it. Clint walked over to the middle of the room by Bruce and The Spine, trying to loosen up before it was officially his turn. Bruce was excitedly holding his hand over the steam, and now that he was closer he could see the condensation not only on Bruce’s hand but also on the metallic plating of the robot, collecting on it and dripping down in a way that reminded Clint of sweat. 

“That’s a lot of steam.” Bruce noted thoughtfully. “How full is your tank?” 

“I assure you Doctor it is still quite full. My system runs efficiently.” 

“But uh, do you need some fresh water… or something?” Bruce offered. The Spine’s face had closed off for the most part again, emotion slipping off of it like the droplets that dripped off of its face. But there was still a glimmer of something there, a certain warmth held in his eye as he looked at Bruce. 

“I do not require any water right now.” The Spine paused, eyes looking off to the side. “...thank you for asking.” 

“Alright, are we ready for the next round?” Natasha asked, eyebrow quirked up. Bruce have her a sheepish smile and backed away to the side of the room again, embarrassed at being caught geeking out to such a high degree. Honestly with Tony and Bruce both on the team they should all be used to that by now. 

“This time you come at me and I’ll do my best to dodge.” Clint said, stretching out for a moment before turning his attention at the robot. 

“Tell me when you’re ready.” The Spine said, and once again he didn’t get into any position that resembled being prepared to fight, only adding to the unhumaness that he had been exuding. 

“I’m ready.” No sooner that Clint said the words than he found himself flinging himself across the training room, dodging a fist that was faster than seemed possible. It had been one thing to watch it as an observer, and another thing to be right there amid the flurry of strikes. The speed was frankly astounding, and now that Clint was face to face with the robot he could see the precision with which it made each move. Precise and quick. This wasn’t something that could be programmed, at least Clint didn’t think so, this was something learned. It was like some kind of chess match, him trying to read each attack that The Spine sent his way. The Spine reading every dodge. 

It was a swift hand shoved into his gut, and Clint couldn’t stop himself from doubling over the arm. Instantly he felt a hard metallic hand on his back from the arm that he wasn’t currently keeled over. 

“Are you alright?” The deep voice in his ear as he gasped for breath. “I apologize.” Clint tried to wave him off even as the robot helped him to stand back up straight. 

“Don’t worry about it. Happens all the time when sparring.” The steam was once again coming off of the robot like thick clouds. He took several deep breaths, the robot didn’t let go and rubbed some soothing circles into his back, clearly trying in any way to help. 

“Incredible.” Steve said. He had taken a seat on the side of the room and was leaning forward, admiration clear on his face. 

“Take a breather Barton.” Natasha said, casually walking over to the middle of the room. Well, casual to anyone else. Clint, even in his state of temporary exhaustion, could see the slight hop in her pace. How she walked ever so faster to the middle of the room. She was excited. 

Barton took a seat next to Steve, who wordlessly handed over a fresh water bottle. It was blessingly cold and Clint took a deep drink from it before holding it up to his hot and sweaty face. 

“Man, it really made me work.” Clint admitted to Steve as Natasha explained the rules of the spar to The Spine. 

“He’s fast.” Steve agreed, nodding along. “But Bruce might be faster. I’ve seen him go through at least five pages of notes - front and back - just over the course of your spar.” 

“Ooooh, the show’s about to start.” Clint said, placing a hand on Steve’s arm and looking forward eagerly. Natasha didn’t take time to get into a good stance and find her balance like Clint and Steve had done. She just leapt forward with almost no preamble, swinging her leg around, aiming for his head. The Spine ducked down low and flung out his own leg, attempting to knock Natasha off her balance. Natasha was quick though, and hopped over it. 

From there it just went faster and escalated, and about halfway through Clint realized he had stopped breathing at some point, holding his breath in anticipation. There were no words, just the sounds Natasha’s bare feet and sometimes hands on the floor beneath them. The steam at times blocked Steve and Clint’s view, and he cursed it as he tried to angle his head around to see what was going on. 

And then it was over. The Spine lunged forward, solid steel fist going straight for Natasha’s face. He had her pinned against the ground, and while Clint had seen her pull off many incredible feats, even he knew there was no way out of this. But then, arm still reared back, his arm spasmed. It crept up the rest of the robot, it’s eyes going dark and becoming limp. Something about the robot’s internal make up seemed to prevent it from collapsing completely on Natasha. Clint assumed that with whatever was going on the legs were somehow locked in place. 

There was a heartbeat of nothing, before Clint, Steve, and Bruce were all on their feet and hurrying over. By the time they reached the pair the robot was already powering back on, the lights in his eyes turned back on. With cautious movements he lifted himself back to his feet and offered a hand to Natasha, who took it with what Clint could identify as hard won respect. Not something easy with Natasha. 

“Are you… bleeding?” Steve said in concern, and Clint turned his attention back to the robot. Something thick and viscous was dripping down it’s chin and somehow the metal plates of its face managed a grimace, and hand rising up and touching it before inspecting it with it’s hand. One of its eyebrows raised before it went to it’s jumpsuit and unzipped the front of it just enough to expose it’s chest, exposing a pseudo skeletal structure and humanoid plating. More of the liquid was languidly seeping out of several crevices. The grimace deepened. 

“You are clever, Miss Natasha.” The Spine said, reaching into one of its pockets and pulling out a handkerchief already darkly stained and attempting to mop up the mess. 

“It’s my job.” She replied cooly. 

“What - are you okay?” Bruce asked in concern, and The Spine waved the doctor off. 

“If you give me a moment I can fix the problem easily.” 

“What did you do?” Clint asked curiously. 

“I got his insides knotted up, and then made him have to move in a way that I knew would apply pressure on  _ something.  _ Wasn’t sure what, I just noticed he seemed to have to undo certain movements before performing other ones.” The Spine gave a nod as Natasha explained. 

“If I can have some privacy to mend my break. Any room will do.” The Spine requested, and Steve left to go and show him the way to the locker room connected to the training room - no one would be using it right now. 

“You never fail to blow me away Natasha.” Clint said breathlessly. 

“To be honest, this robot has somewhat blown me away. I could have been wrong and it could have won that little spar. It’s fast and quick witted.” She admitted, eyes training after the robot. 

“He’s incredible! I hope that if I ask eventually he’ll be willing to talk to me about how exactly he functions. He’s carrying around so much weight, how is he able to move it so gracefully?” 

“I’m more eager to see what tricks he has up his sleeve. Tony isn’t going to go easy on him.” Natasha said, and smiled. Something that sent a shiver down Clint’s spine. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed! Stay safe, stay healthy, self isolate and try to fight the boredom!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony tests The Spines abilities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *uses writing a fic for a niche and small fan community as a way to cope during quarantine*
> 
> I hope you guys like it - I hope my little headcanons for Tony are okay with you guys.

Tony’s little field that he set up was less for a sparring session like the other three had with the robot and more just so they could see what it could do. He had put together some shooting ranges with an assortment of guns and a fake battlefield where the robot could do… whatever it could do. They hadn’t actually asked it yet and it’s not like the thing came with instructions. He didn’t want to see how good it was fighting with guns against him, he just wanted a baseline of what was and wasn’t in the realm of possibility for it. What can or can’t it do? They would go from there. 

Apparently Natasha had already broken the thing. Tony had to hold in a scoff - not even two hours and it had already had problems. He didn’t  _ want _ to dislike the robot, but he couldn’t help the little competitive monster inside of him. Making technology was literally his living. It was what he prided himself the most on, his abilities to create. Tony wanted to like the thing, but the fact that it was something that had been brought in because Fury perceived Tony’s own work as not good enough. It was a direct blow right where it hurt. Business was about being aware of the dangers of others, of people being better than him and the looming dangers of becoming obsolete. This robot, created by some mystery man or company, represented that exact fear in a way that hit a little too close to home.

But Tony was a professional. He would deal. He would be civil. But he couldn’t stop himself from the way that his mind tried to work through how to create a better version of the robot every time he saw it move, every time he caught a glimpse at its plating and what could possibly lay underneath that. 

“It’s impressive.” Natasha said when she came in, the rest of their group close behind her. Yeah, that didn’t help his current emotional state. Compliments from Natasha don’t come without being earned. 

“Tony, Tony, you’re never going to believe this!” Bruce said excitedly, waving around his notebook. “It’s  _ steam powered _ ! That’s incredible!”

“It’s… I’m sorry Bruce I think that my ears just stopped working. It sounded like you said it was steam powered which can’t be right.”

“I mean, obviously he must have some kind of a power source inside of him that makes the boilers work, but steam powered all the same.” Tony felt bad that he couldn’t share Bruce’s excitement. It was the perfect thing to hit him while he was throwing a miniature pit party for himself. He knew a lot about a lot of things, but mostly he worked with electric based power sources and wiring. Back in his earlier days he had briefly flirted with steam powered devices, but it was something that took a lot of energy to make work with little pay off, often resulting in sub par inventions that just couldn’t keep up with his other stuff. 

“That’s got to be quite the power source.” Tony said instead of spilling all his other thoughts. The good doctor and him had bonded quite a bit over the past little bit over their love of technology and learning, and he’d hate to wound that friendship with his own brittle ego. 

“Do you think he’s going to need help with his repairs?” Steve pondered, concern in his voice. “The oil looked a lot like blood and internal bleeding isn’t exactly an easy thing to fix.”

No sooner had Steve asked that question than the doors to the little training facility opened and the robot appeared. Tony’s traitorous eyes and brain instantly went to the back spines that he could just barely see - what was their use? Why did they stick out so far? There had to be a way to do that better he just knew it-

“Welcome back to the party.” Clint said, smiling at the robot. 

“Are you okay?” Steve asked, looking over the robot the same way Tony had seen him do with the others during missions. 

“I am alright. It was a simple fix - I apologize if I caused any concern.” The Spine replied, tapping its hand against its chest a couple times as if to prove just how hardy it was. 

“Good, I want you to bring your best to the table.” 

“Will I be fighting with you as well?” It asked Tony, face betraying no emotion on its thoughts on the matter. 

“No, we just want a baseline to see what kind of training on equipment you might need and what abilities you have. Basically it’s just a shooting range.” The robot didn’t seem disappointed with the lower energy of Tony’s little test, although again due to its lack of emotion it was hard to get a good idea of what it was feeling. Emotions had never been Tony’s strong suit and the robot made trying to gather that thing even harder. Maybe he’d find a moment alone to talk to Clint or something - he’d always been much more emotionally aware than Tony. Maybe he was picking something up. 

Tony led The Spine to the little shooting gallery, a series of guns displayed for the robot to test out. He took a seat, sandwiched between Steve and Bruce behind some safety glass to watch the robot work. Natasha refused to sit down, instead standing off to the side and analyzing the robot with those sharp eyes of hers. 

“So the robot’s fast.” Tony said, feeling relatively safe to talk about it with the thick glass between them. “...But so are we. Why does Fury think that we need this thing?” 

“We all want Hydra taken out of the picture.” Steve said. “I’m sure that this is just Fury’s attempt to give us a little more help. You know our team has been a little less balanced recently.” He presented the argument calmly. On the other side of the glass the robot had taken the first of the guns, taken stock of it, and then expertly fired it. Bruce was writing down some notes and little budding theories on how he was able to work with such precision. Ideas on how the arm was working, the optical unit and such. “Thor hasn’t been able to work with us for some time. Wanda and Vision are busy with their own attempts to hunt down the remaining Hydra members, working in Eastern Europe. An extra body who might be able to fill one of those holes… that’s not a bad thing Tony.” 

Tony kept his eyes focused ahead. The robot had cycled through almost all of the guns already, working quickly and efficiently. The targets on the other end of the shooting gallery were all perfect scores. It had training or it had data - Tony wasn’t sure which yet - for all of these. Or at least some kind of basic training that it was able to convert to these guns. 

“I know, Steve.” He gave a sigh and stuck his hands in his jacket pockets, letting them fiddle with the loose bolts and screws in there and trying desperately to channel away some of his anxiety. “What I don’t know is anything about  _ it _ .” 

“And you don’t like unknown variables.” Steve finished the thought with a nod. “That’s okay, Tony, that’s why were doing this. So we can learn more about this guy. Worst case scenario is we don’t know much about him but we work a few Hydra base busts with the guy, they go good and Fury is satisfied and moves him to another team. Or they go bad and Fury moves the guy to another team. We’ll get through it alright.” 

The robot finished with the guns and exited the shooting gallery, Tony and his group emerging to meet it. It had a hand up towards its solid steel ear and was snapping it methodically. 

“Are your ears okay?” Bruce asked, and Tony assumed that while part it was the doctors natural curiosity at least part of it had to be concern that they might break Fury’s toy that he had given them twice in one day. 

“I am fine doctor. The hardware in my ear’s to enable hearing are small and can be delicate. They are usually quite sturdy but it’s been some time since my last check up as it were, and I was just making sure that they were holding up well despite the noise. As of right now they are still in good shape.” It said it like it was reading off information, mechanically and flat. Friday had more personality than it.

“So not unlike human ears.” Natasha said thoughtfully.

“Is this going to be a problem?” Tony asked. He couldn’t help the slight bitterness that entered this voice, although he was unsure if the robot even had the capacity to understand emotion. 

“Not at all. If they were fine during those tests they should continue to be fine. And if they break I should be able to fix them myself.” The Spine rolled up his sleeves and gave Tony a  _ look _ . It wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last time that Tony cursed his own inability to read microexpressions. He had not idea what the look meant and whether he should be offended or not. 

“Just one last test for you. It’s a little training course but we’ll just use it to see you in action a bit.” Tony said, turning away from the robot and striding towards the course he had set up ahead of time. “You can take a gun with you if you want but it’s mostly for whatever weapons you come with.” He sent a glance back to see The Spine nod in understanding as they approached the doors to the room. “Go ahead inside and get familiar with the surroundings - we’re going to head up to the observation room and then we’ll start.” 

The Spine proceeded into the room and Tony and the other’s began the long climb of stairs to overlook the training room. It was pretty barebones as these kind of things went. There were blocks and pillars to hide behind, and several circles in the floor would open to release mechanical enemies or turrets to fight. They’d have to see how the robot held up to determine when the ending of the test would be. If he was good enough it would be after he incapacitated all of them, if he was bad they’d have to cut it short. 

“Regardless of how he does, our next operation is happening tomorrow night.” Natasha updated them as they took their seats, all them looking eagerly out the window at their top down view of the terrain. No one asked how or when Natasha had gotten the information, she was just like that. “Fury will want us to take him with us. At least we already know he can fend for himself.” 

“We’re going to start now.” Tony said over the intercom and The Spine walked towards the cover of one of the pillars. The turret bots rose from the ground, the flying ones came out of their secret little hidey holes, and the ground ones emerged from the side panels of the room. There weren’t too many, it was a pretty easy going course, but should be enough to see what the robot was capable of. 

Down below The Spine turned a corner and launched his hand right through one of the robots, ruthlessly grabbing a handful of the inner circuitry and pulling it out. He snuck up to one of the turrets and grabbed the top part from behind, tearing it off from the base with a strength that made even Bruce give out a small gasp. He was strong, and he was durable, solidly built. As another ground robot came his way The Spine stuck out his right hand, and though it was hard to get a clear view from way up in the observation room it looked like the very plating of his arm parted and transformed his hand. Electricity sparked a couple times before launching out violently and hitting the robot along with one of the flying robot and another turret that was around the corner. Clint let out a low whistle. 

It went on like for a little while, the robot taking down the other bots quickly and efficiently, while also using stealth to its advantage. And then the robot suddenly stopped, standing still as it reached the middle of the room. Its bright eyes closed and its hands rested at its side for a moment and then, all at once, every other robot in the room just stopped, staying in place for a moment. And then calmly and without any indication of something wrong, not so much as a twitch of complaint, each robot returned to the little coves that they had come from. The Spine patted one of the turrets on the top as it sunk back down into the ground and looked up at observation room, giving them a concise nod. 

“How… “ Clint muttered, eyes wide. 

“Shields technology isn’t easy to get into.” Tony said, speaking from experience. “This robot, how did it manage to hack it so quickly.” 

“Well, one way to find out, boys.” Natasha said, standing in front of the door. “Let’s go ask it. And debrief it for our mission tomorrow night.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope it was enjoyable! I'm excited for what's next going forward. Let me know if you enjoyed it with a comment :)
> 
> Stay safe stay healthy


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce walks the halls of the Shield base

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter wasn't quite what I had intended but this interaction just kinda wrote itself and I thought it felt right.

The robots hacking work was elegant. That was the word that came to mind as Bruce looked over the lines of code with Tony. The debriefing itself would be in about two hours, giving everyone a little down time to digest the information they had gathered on the robot and mentally prepare to fit him in their plans. He and Tony had separated from the others to see what exactly it had done to the robots during the last little test. It had taken getting permission from Fury and several of the higher ups first, since Tony and Bruce didn’t actually have access to the coding and if they went ahead and hacked in themselves to peek at the code not only would it essentially ruin the scene of the crime as it was, but Fury would be pissed and he would  _ know _ it was them. 

So there was Bruce and Tony, standing shoulder to shoulder, looking over the lines of code and comparing it to the last backup of the same code, contrasting what had changed and been edited and feeling only progressively more in awe with regards to the robot. Well, Bruce wasn’t sure what Tony was feeling, probably a little less impressed and little more competitive knowing the man, but even Tony would have to admit what they were looking at was smoothly done. 

Somehow the robot had snuck in past the many security fire walls without actually doing any heavy lifting - for some reason the system had let him in as a full access admin. Whatever The Spine had done to do that Tony and Bruce still hadn’t managed to track down, he left no trail. After he had done that the robot had rewritten the coding for the machines inside of the training room. It would make the most sense for him to have just returned their coding to their standby states or to the coding lines for when a training session is called off, but it was something different. Tony and Bruce had been picking it apart for a while but still couldn’t quite manage to figure out what it had done. 

“I think I need to go for a walk.” Bruce said, straightening back up and turning his eyes away from the screen, rubbing at them until he saw stars. He was starting to feel the fatigue of staring into the brightly lit screen for so long and being in one place. It felt good to move his feet for a bit and stop staring at the numbers and lines of code. Tony let out a small grunt as he left, eyes never even leaving the screen. Once Tony put his attention on something it could be hard to drag him away, and Bruce made a mental note to grab some food and a drink when he came back because who knew when was the last time Tony had eaten and when was the next time he would eat if not prompted. Usually Pepper was good at reminding him, but they weren’t at Stark Tower and Pepper hadn’t been permitted to come with them, so it fell to Tony’s teammates to watch him. 

That’s what a team was after all. People who could watch your back. 

Bruce didn’t have anywhere in mind to walk to. Sometimes, when he was working from Tony’s place, he liked to walk up to the top of the tower, all the way to the roof. From there he could look out at the city and remember that he was small. His problems were small. There was so much going on, so much that was bigger than him. And there was some solace in that. To Bruce at least - one night he had tried to explain his little thought process to Clint up on the roof, side by side and looking out over the city as they tended their bruises and cuts with undertones of relief of a job well done. Clint hadn’t been able to see the appeal, had his own reason for enjoying the view. 

Fair enough, Bruce had said. Fair enough. 

The Shield base was not so comfortable. Impersonal. Bruce didn’t feel safe here, not like he did when he was with the team at Stark Tower, and he found himself walking around as if trying to find that peace. It was rare to pass people in the hallways of the base. Logically there were plenty of people there, somewhere hidden in the rooms. Behind the doors. With their own missions. Their own plans. Their own secrets…

Bruce tried to shake himself from that abyss of thoughts. It never took him anywhere good. 

“...all the little pieces make up so much sense in the distance…” The voice was sweet and soft, lyrics of a song Bruce wasn’t familiar with drifting through the air. He was instantly drawn to it. Something about it was comforting in a way that his surroundings weren’t, and song was an aspect of humanity that was so rarely witnessed behind the metaphorical and literal trenches. 

The door to one of the workshops was ajar, light coming through the crack. Sounds of metal against metal, the occasional buzz of welding.

“...Fragmented to until the time- no.” Bruce entered the room as quietly as he could, not wanting to disturb whoever was working, but unable to resist his curiosity. 

The Spine was sitting at one of the work tables, a lamp light brought down so it illuminated the piece of machinery in front of him. Currently the robot was slightly angled away from the project, furiously scribbling out something on a piece of paper. 

“...Fragmented to… To the place.” His voice carried to tune carefully as he tried out the different word combinations. “Fragmented to the point…” The Spine reached over and wrote something on the paper, turning back to the machinery before him. “Well, you don’t like the way that I am…” Bruce tried to angle his head to get a better view of what the robot was working on. It was a long L shaped piece and as he watched The Spine pried off a few more pieces of the plating, expertly grabbing some thin tools and putting them inside of the plating tweaking something that Bruce couldn’t see. Something about the form was familiar…

Bruce’s eyes widened as the realization hit him. Instantly he cast his eyes down to confirm his suspicion. There was the evidence. A boot carefully placed next to one of the legs of the table and one of the jumpsuit pant legs rolled halfway up the thigh, empty space where a leg should be below the knee. The Spine was making adjustments to his own leg. 

This wasn’t the first time Bruce had seen this kind of things. There were plenty of heros and people who worked for Shield with bionic additions to their body that they would take off and work on at times, but for some reason it surprised him to see the robot work on it. Sure he had been able to fix his internal issues after the fight with Natasha, but that had seemed more like a medical repair. Unless he had secretly gotten more hurt than he had let on, this wasn’t a work of necessity. 

The way the robot sat at the table wasn’t like anything he had seen. It actually managed to look very human. A stark contrast to the way it had perfect posture the entire time that Bruce had interacted with it earlier. Even its movements were a little more natural looking, although still stilted in a way that betrayed that it was a robot.

Bruce walked the rest of the way into the room, the sound of the robot’s voice reverberating off the wall. 

“Hot on the trail of a real fine life.” The robot crooned and Bruce couldn’t shake the feeling that he was intruding on a private moment. Anxiously he cleared his throat to try and let the robot know of his presence. 

“Uh, is your leg okay?” The change was instantaneous. The Spine’s jaw clanked shut, song cut off in the middle of a note. He straightened up in his chair and when he turned around it was without any of the finesse to his movements that he had earlier. Rigid and Bruce was beginning to think carefully robotic. A puff of steam came out of him, rising in the air. 

“Dr. Banner.” His voice now lacked any of the emotion that the song had held, and if Bruce hadn’t been there he would have been inclined to think he’d imagined that it had come from the robot. “I apologize for not noticing you entering.” 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” 

“It is my own fault. I usually am much more aware of my surroundings.”

“I was just wandering around and heard you from the hall. Your song is nice.” Bruce said and gestured to the lined piece of paper in front of The Spine. “I haven’t heard that song before.” 

“I’m sorry, I- I- I- I-.” The robot’s voice skipped in a way that Bruce hadn’t heard before and a brief expression spread across the robot’s face, the plates moving into a frustrated and scrunched up look, thin black lips pressing firmly together. Steam puffed out of his vent cheeks in what Bruce thought might be embarrassment, and the mental thought that this robot in front of him might be experiencing emotions surprised Bruce. Not just that he thought it and for the technological implications, but that Bruce found that he might even believe it. 

“I apologize.” The robot finally said, face once again smoothing out. Was he… was he masking his emotions? It made Bruce think of Natasha, except she never seemed to be able to turn her lack of emotions off. It seemed like it was more of a conscious effort for The Spine. 

“What’s there to apologize for?” Bruce asked, carefully keeping his expression open and his words soft. The Spine’s expression didn’t change but it looked at Bruce, then looked away, then looked at Bruce again. Intelligent eyes sizing Bruce up and down. Bruce waited a moment, giving him a chance to talk if he wanted to. But nothing came out.

“Is your leg okay? Natasha didn’t break you even more than you let on, did she?” Bruce joked, trying to bring the levity to the conversation that the robot seemed uncomfortable contributing to himself. 

“My leg is fine, Doctor.” Again Bruce waited for the robot to elaborate, but no additional explanation came. Bruce couldn’t resist a small sigh. 

“Look, The Spine, we’re going to be working together. I don’t know what kind of experiences you’ve had that have made you feel like you need to have an apology constantly on your tongue, and we just met so I don’t expect you to trust me enough to tell me. But I’m not mad that you’re singing, and I’m not mad if your foot is broken or whatever. I’m just asking as a curious and supportive team member.” 

Again The Spine glanced around the room, eyes the only thing betrayed that it was thinking and mulling over what Bruce had said. Finally it gave a small, sharp nod. 

“There is nothing wrong with my leg, or my foot. I’m just doing a little maintenance and making sure that everything will be running smoothly for tomorrow.” He explained, picking up the small, thin screwdriver he had been holding earlier. 

“I thought you couldn’t perform your own maintenance. Like for your ears.” Bruce said, and again the facial plates of the robot moved around into an expression that he wasn’t quite able to discern.

“What did you think I did when I fixed my internal pump valve that Miss Natasha fractured?” He said in amusement, lips quirking up slightly. Bruce felt a rush of heat come to his cheeks. 

“Well, I had thought that maybe your coding prohibits you from, uh, customization or something but that repairs didn’t fall under that category.” Bruce’s mouth work as his brain caught up to the inconsistency of his thought. “...but then why wouldn’t you be able to fix the ear pieces?”

“Even I can’t fix things I can’t see.” He said, shrugging. “And that would be delicate work close to several important facets of myself. If I mess up something up there it has the potential to be disastrous. Not just to me, but to those around me.” 

“I mean, if we can avoid that I know I’d prefer it.” Bruce said with a small laugh. He stood back up and reached over to pat The Spine’s shoulder before stopping and pulling his hand back. Too familiar too quick. Didn’t want to scare him away. “Well, we still have an hour or so until the debriefing, so just make sure you have both feet by then. 

“Of course, Doctor.” 

“You can just call me Bruce.” He would give it time. Now that he knew what he was looking at, the skittishness and uncertainty in the robot was clear. It reminded him a bit of himself. A bit of Tony. A bit of Natasha. As long as he gave The Spine time to open up, he’d be just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it. Stay healthy and stay safe. If you liked it leave me a comment and help motivate me to keep writing!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha introspective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a shorter chapter with no dialogue (I don't think so at least). I tried this chapter a couple different ways but this was the only one that felt right.

Trust and Respect are two very distinct things. They both deserve a capitalization in Natasha’s mind, in order to show the importance they held. 

As she stood behind the boys, Bruce in front of them using a holographic screen to give them their debriefing, she couldn’t stop herself from going over the two words in her mind. As if holding them in her hands and weighing them, like the grand scales at the end of one’s life holding your heart and determining its good (If she believed in an afterlife she knew her would be heavy, weighed down by her transgressions, and nothing that she did for the rest of her life would be enough penance). Tony, Clint, and Steve were all on the couch in front of her, drinking in the information and trying to memorize the layouts of the warehouse they were going to infiltrate. 

The robot had refused a seat, and was standing just behind the couch. That had made Natasha go even further behind them, until her back was almost touching the wall, so that she could keep all five of them in her eyesight. After their spar, The Spine had surely earned some of her Respect. It wasn’t an easy thing, and she didn’t give it out easily. But he had shown strength and ability. 

Trust, on the other hand, was harder to come by. Trust was like… like a carefully constructed ceramic bowl. Created with time and practice and a steady hand. Beautiful. But ultimately fragile and breakable. And once something is broken it can be hard to piece back together. Not impossible. But also never the same. Natasha had given her Trust to many people over the course of her life, and had cut herself on enough broken pottery to learn from her mistakes. If this robot wanted her Trust she would not be the first to take that step. And if he didn’t want it all the better - she was used to keeping an eye out, even on her allies. 

She listened half heartedly to what Doctor Banner was saying. She had gone through the mission objectives this morning, all the details already ingrained in her mind. Tomorrow evening looked like an easy enough bust. The trickiest part of these was always making sure to capture the Hydra agents. Like cockroaches they skittered away into the woodwork. Cutting off exits was a vital part of these operations and then incapacitating those inside. Not killing. More often than not those they brought back were threads leading to other underground Hydra bases. They were important cockroaches. 

But when it came down to it what was important was less Hydra in the world. And sometimes when she came face to face with one of them the fire in her stomach, a roaring tiger, was unable to hold itself in and things got messy. 

Her heart weighed heavy. 

Bruce carried on with the assignments for the mission. He would be the man behind the scenes, as expects. Clint and Tony would be in charge of securing the exits and catching anyone that tried to slip out. Tony was unsurprisingly bothered by getting less flashier job but he had learned to swallow that pride when they had started working together and most of his complaining was just for show. Natasha, Steve, and The Spine would all be going inside, incapacitating, and capturing. Gather any data that could be useful. Once that was done they’d call in the Shield clean up crew to take care of the rest. 

They had been doing these kind of missions for months. They had long since lost most of their charm and it came to the point where it was almost tiring to get up and go catch some members of the worlds most dangerous organization. Pedestrian even. Sometimes Natasha wondered if this was how an everyday man who worked a 9-5 office job felt everyday. Never previous to this point had she thought she would be drawing similarities between herself and a civilian and yet here she was. 

What a world to live in. 

The debriefing finished and the night marched on. The robot took his leave, and Natasha didn’t miss the look after him Bruce had. Like he was watching a puppy he had intended on adopting get carried away by another family. Bruce trusted easier than Natasha. He was hardened inside of himself, yes. Had experienced pain. But was also eager to make relations. Especially with people he identified with. 

It was movie night with the boys. They never expected her to attend but they always made an effort to extend the invitation. Knowing how she disliked being smothered but that sometimes even being asked was what she needed. She chose to attend, because while she had Respect for the robot there was also something about it’s perfect posture and careful eyes that made the ghosts of her past rise up and whisper in her ears, breathe down her neck. Sitting in a room full of fuzzy blankets with Steve and Tony loudly making fun of a movie, popcorn and stick beverages… It was a needed and welcome comfort. 

Footloose came to a close and Hairspray came to an open. Steve went from riffing on the show to proudly singing along at the top of his lungs while Tony threw every available pillow into his face. It wasn’t long until Clint joined in and Natasha relaxed on the couch, not looking at the screen but instead at her teammates. Those whom she had chosen to Trust. 

By the end of Hairspray Tony and Bruce had both fallen asleep, hunkered down in a pile of blankets. Steve put on Ratatouille, adding the closed captions for Clint who took out his hearing aids, clearly intending to fall asleep by the time the movie came to a close, already heavily leaning over onto his companion. 

Natasha took her leave, bending down and kissing the top of Clint’s head, lips brushing his hair. She had never been able to sleep in such an unfamiliar and unorthodox place. Bedrooms were a requirement for her, ones with locks on the doors. Heavy and steel. Where she could hide five blades, two pistols, and one pill that she could ingest and make the decision to cut off her own life and jump start her way to hell if she needed to. 

Places needed Trust to. And the hallways of Shield had the furthest thing from that. As soon as the door to the movie room closed behind her, like flicking a switch, she felt herself tense. Muscles tight and coiled, eyes glancing around and taking stock of her surroundings, ears carefully pricked for any noises. Away from her safety and her comfort, paranoia and old habits emerged. 

Shield had set them up in a wing of their base a good distance from anyone else. Not that Fury had told them that, but she had found that information on her own. There was little information unavailable to Natasha if she truly wanted it. Knowing what was around her was important to Natasha, and of course Shield knew how volatile Tony and Clint could be at times and had put them with a good empty buffer from others. There should be very little sign of life in the hallways. 

Such as light coming from underneath a door leading into one of the computer rooms. 

Instinctively Natasha’s breathing evened out and her center of gravity changed, quiet steps becoming almost imperceptible. Her mind changed in an instant to go a million miles an hour, taking in the fact that the light was a cool kind that came from a screen, not the warm yellow tones of the overhead lights. Thinking about the likelihood of a Hydra agent getting out of the cells somewhere down below them and making it all the way up to this floor without them knowing or being warned. If perhaps there had been some kind of message they missed out on while watching a movie. She cursed herself and could also feel the lash against her cheek, the red hot pain at having made a mistake and been careless. 

Deftly her hands reached for the doorknob, silently opening and door and creeping into the room, keeping close to the wall. Like she had predicted the actual lights weren’t turned on, the only illumination coming from a large screen on the other end of the room, a tall lithe figure silhouetted in front of it. She flicked the knife out of her shirt sleeve and relished in the weight of it in her hand. 

No use rushing into things. Natasha watched the figure work, their actions becoming progressively more and more frantic and hurried. She squinted and tried to read the words on the screen. It looked like it was trying to access some kind of communication with something. Someone.The screen moved faster than the man’s hands, switching from the call window to code to different programs. Finally the man stopped for a moment, slamming his hands down in front of him and letting out a loud, frustrated groan. Angry puffs of stream rose in the air around him. 

Natasha silently slipped back out the door, quickly entering the room that sat on the opposite side of the hallway. She had left the boys intending to fall asleep but any clouds or fog in her mind had evaporated, replaced with hypersensitivity. It took an hour of waiting, but she was used to that kind of work, it was her element. The robot finally exited the room, computer screen dark turning the room into a hole of inky blackness. The lights from the hall glinted off of his gleaming metal face, green eyes casting down to both sides of the hallway. His face betrayed no emotion, but Natasha thought maybe she could see a flicker of something. Guilt, perhaps. 

The Spine turned and walked down the hallway in the direction of one of the empty rooms, probably where he had set up base. Patiently, Natasha waited until he was well away, until the steam he had left in the air in his wake had completely dissipated and the sound of his careful footsteps had vanished. 

Carefully she crossed the hall back into the other room, closing the door behind herself and flicking on the light. She hurried to the computer, doing her best to keep the emotions out of her movement. But she could feel the frustration and sense of betrayal already coursing a righteous liquid fire in her veins. A slight tremble in her hands as she turned on the screen and turned on the computer, trying to find the altered or fiddled with files. Changing tactics she brought up the surveillance files of the room and felt the suspicion and unease inside of her chest increase. 

Gone. The files were gone. 

An innocent man did not cover his tracks so cleanly and carefully. 

It took some time but at last Natasha managed to track down some trace of the robot. A small recorded voice file that he must have overlooked when cleaning his miss. If she had to guess it was one of many, probably had just been filed a little differently than the others and therefore gone unnoticed. The small file had tried to get sent off but had bounced back, coming across a block of some kind that Natasha didn’t have the time to test out or find. 

She grabbed a copy of it and left quickly for her room. 

Only then did she turn on the sound file. 

From the speakers came The Spine’s deep, timberous voice. 

“Rabbit, can you hear me?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! If you did drop me a comment to help motivate me - you guys have been awesome so far and very kind. I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve infiltrates a Hydra base

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually pretty happy with this chapter! Between the previous chapter and this chapter I got a better image of where the story is going to go. I'm still playing it mostly by ear, but I at least know a few story beats I want to hit.

Steve double checked his pockets, made sure his guns were on stun for the twelfth time, untied and retied his boots. This was his least favorite part of these missions, these infiltrate and incapacitate Hydra agent missions that he had been doing for months on end at this point. He still hadn’t adjusted to the waiting. Clint and Tony were making sure they had a handle on all possible entrances and exits, and the infiltration squad wasn’t supposed to make a single move until they gave the all secure. 

Usually it was just the tense air of anticipation that made Steve jittery, but this time it was more than that. It had everything to do with Natasha who stood on one side of Steve, looking at the warehouse they would be infiltrating soon from the roof they were perched on, and The Spine who stood on the other side of Steve, motionless and focused. It was as if Steve was standing between two pillars. Well, if it wasn’t for the distinct dangerous air around Natasha and the sharp look she kept casting towards The Spine. Initially Steve had worried that the looks were meant for him and had been trying to go through what could possibly be wrong before realizing that she wasn’t boring a hole into the side of his head but rather through it, aiming at the robot on the other side. 

She had been acting different all day, especially around The Spine. It had surprised him - yesterday after seeing how they had sparred together he had thought for sure that The Spine had made a good impression on her. Apparently not. Whatever it was she seemed to still be making her mind up about it or investigating the matter - usually she told Steve and the others if someone was giving her a bad feeling in her gut as her gut was usually right. If she wasn’t telling them then that meant her gut and the facts were contradicting each other. 

Maybe he’d discuss it with her after the mission. 

“Okay, team Omega, move out.” Bruce’s voice rang through the comms unit in Steve’s ear, and he nodded before remembering that Bruce’s couldn’t actually see him. 

“We hear you, Doctor. Team Omega moving out.” Natasha said, voice quiet and measured. They split up the second they hit the ground - each of them would be entering the building from a different direction to try and get as many of the interior Hydra agents as possible before any kind of alarm went through the base. Each person was equipped with several stun guns and Shield brand restraining combination rope and cuffs. 

Non lethal - something that was non negotiable is Shield wanted Steve’s help on a mission. Clint and Tony had already taken care of and hidden away the exterior guards for Steve’s entrance, and he walked into the place using all the stealth skills he could muster, pulling on a combination of Clint’s sniper training and Natasha’s ballet lessons. He had to assume that The Spine and Natasha were proceeding with the same amount of care as there had yet to be any alarms. It made it easy to pick off those that he did come across. Swiftly and quietly taking them out more or less one room at a time. 

He should have known it was going too easy - he was hardly even breaking a sweat. 

Steve came to a pair of thick, sturdy doors. Already partially opened. Some kind of green light emanating from within. He could feel his heart stick in his throat at the glow, some part of him already telling him that something dangerous was ahead. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he forced his feet to continue forward, pushing the cold metal doors open. 

The scene is almost beautiful. The scene is haunting. 

Green light floods the room, bouncing off the walls, the objects, the people, making everything drip in its rich emerald coloring. It was coming from some sort of orb like object that hung suspended in metallic structure, too bright for Steve to look at directly. Silhouetted by the light was The Spine - his name sake dorsal spikes instantly clueing Steve in. His hat wasn’t on his head, somehow making the robot even more unearthly looking with the distinct ridges and gaps in the plating. One arm was outstretching in front of him, and on the end of that arm, was a man. His hand curled around the neck of them even as they squirmed beneath his solid grip, hands reaching up and scrabbling uselessly on the metal. There was a sputtering sound coming from them - not words. Too pained and broken and shattered to be words. 

“I w-w-will not ask again.” His timberous voice held a slight tremor in it, even as his eyes glowed that bright green that perfectly,  _ perfectly _ , matched the green around them. “Where did y-you get t-t-this cor-re-re?” 

“Spine!” Steve shouted, rushing forward before even thinking. He placed a hand on The Spine’s arm and looked at him. Was this the robot’s mission objective? To murder? But when he looked in those eyes, just like yesterday, he didn’t see an emotionless robot. He saw the fury and panic of a man. Behind him, a pained and wheezing sound came from the Hydra agent. 

“The Spine, you’re going to kill him. Is that what you want? You won’t get your answers if he dies.” The robot’s eyes didn’t move from the man he had in his hand, and the stories Steve could read from those eyes. 

The sound of the man hitting the floor sends a wave of relief through Steve. The still silence in the room is filled with coughing and deep wheezing breaths of air that  _ sound _ painful. The Spine’s eyes remain forward, and steam begins to billow out from his all the more, all the faster. A slow shudder goes through him, making his neck tick to the side and and his arms shake and… and he’s trembling. 

That might not be entirely right, Steve doesn’t know that much about this robot, but his brain can’t help but to look at the robot - the person - in front of him whose gaze is a thousand miles away and body is shaking and see someone who is in pain. Who’s in shock. Steve spares a small moment to bend down and check on the Hydra agent, who already has a dark shadow of a hand on his neck. He cuffs his hands and his feet so he won’t get away or make any problems. This is a delicate time. 

“Hey buddy…” He says the words slowly, making sure that he stays within The Spine’s range of sight. The robot hasn’t moved at all, save for the tremors that continue to run through him. “Are you doing alright? What’s got you so spooked?” 

“...t-t-their bodie---s al-l twis-t-ted… met-t-tal and f-flesh fused t-ge-ther…” The Spine muttered the words softly, with such emotion behind them speaking of unspeakable horror and unshed tears, and Steve has to risk a step closer to catch them. The robot suddenly locks up for a moment, and when he speaks his voice flat and deep. “Flashback sequence detected, running repair code.” His head spasms to the side again. “Error. Error. Err-” 

“Is it this thing?” Steve says, not even sure if The Spine can hear him right now. He gestures towards the green orb. “Let me take it out of that thing, maybe then the light will die down.” He crosses the short distance to the strange structure holding the strange light quickly. It’s all he has to go off of, unless The Spine had some kind of person vendetta against that specific Hydra agent. His hand is out, just about to brush the metal that is containing the strange object, when a cold and firm hand rapidly comes out and grabs his wrist. It isn’t painful - which surprises him, after seeing those bruises on the Hydra agents neck - but he can’t break free from it, which is his first instinct. 

The Spine is standing next to him, and his eyes are focused once again. A tremor continues to run down his entire body, making an unpleasant sound as the metal clacks against the metal. His head to tick to the side. 

“Commander Rogers.” A steady voice, not the whisper one from mere seconds ago. “Please do not touch the green matter core. I have been around them before, I will take it back to the Shield base.” 

“...okay.” Steve gives a slow nod and back up a little, giving the robot space to go about his business. The Spine reached out, and from the back Steve can’t see what he does to extract the thing, but he can tell the moment that the robot comes in contact with it. Something blue that runs down the length of his spines suddenly flares to a bright blue for a bare moment before dying back down. And then all the light dies down, the green suddenly gone, and without even realizing it Steve feels like he can breath again. He hadn’t realized how suffocating the room was getting until that moment. 

The Spine turns back around, his left hand clenched tightly so that only the smallest rays of green manage to peak through the slits. His face has contorted itself into some kind of sad, angry expression. 

oOo

The ride back is short. Steve did another sweep through of the base, meeting Natasha somewhere along the way. After they get out they find that Tony and Clint had found a few stragglers who had made runs for the entrance. They make it sound like it wasn’t too hard to take them down, and by the time Natasha and Steve are out both of them are sitting on a curb eating churros and keeping an eye on the pile of unconscious men they had deposited in a nearby alley. Shield’s clean up crew would come through and take care of the rest. 

The Spine had already headed back, apparently. 

When Bruce lets them know Natasha glowers at nothing. He can’t quite judge what she think of the fact, but judging byhow Clint reacts - instantly going to make some kind of joke about how the robot probably needed an oil change done - it isn’t good. Steve decides not to tell them about the green light and the strange core. Tomorrow, once they’re all rested up, he’ll bring it up in the debriefing meeting. It’s undoubtedly important. But he’ll leave out The Spine almost choking the life out of a Hydra agent, at the debriefing The Spine can choose for himself what he wants to divulge about the entire event. And if it does end up slipping out, at the least the man will be there to defend himself. 

He doesn’t end up having to look for The Spine. The Spine finds him that night, while Steve stands on one of the terraces and looks at the night sky, nursing a drink in his hand.

The green eyes of the robot, little pinpricks int he dim light, remind him far too much of the light within that room. 

“Commander Rogers.” He says formally, giving a small respectful nod. All the emotion that Steve had witnessed during the mission, inside of that room, is gone. The Spine has once again returned to what Steve might be more of a facade than how the robot actually behaved. “I have come to apologize for my actions during the mission today. I understand if you want to tell your superiors to send me to another team.”

“I don’t want that, Spine. I just want to know what happened back there?” He tries to keep his voice level, but his emotions manage to bubble up just enough to add a tense note to his words. The Spine winces. 

“I cannot talk about it. Not only is it confidential information, but I would risk another flashback sequence.” The Spine’s eyes avert themselves from Steve’s pleading face. Steve takes a moment to look at the robot again, trying to gain a fresh perspective. He finds something more troubling instead. 

“What happened to your hand?” The Spine looks down, as if he had forgotten that his left hand is completely gone, as if cut off from the wrist. He gives another grimace.

“My, ah, my coding is somewhat compromised. I could not get my hand to reliquinsh the core, but I needed to put it somewhere safe. When I power down for a debugging cycle it should fix the problem, and then tomorrow I can put back on my hand and let go.” 

Steve can’t help the small chuckle. And The Spine gives a surprising smile back. 

“Do you want a drink, Spine? We can talk for a bit, if you want.” He raises his glass of bourbon towards The Spine as if in a toast, and the smile on the robots face grows sad. 

“Unfortunately, I do not drink alcohol Commander Rogers. I will see you tomorrow at the debriefing.” 

And then the robot walked off, back into the building, leaving Steve looking at the place where he had been, a million of questions in his mind and no way to get the answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you did, leave a comment, they really go a long way in making me want to keep writing this story and they're always so sweet to get. 
> 
> Stay safe and stay healthy!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Debriefing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short chapter, but it's a scene that needed to happen. The next couple of chapters are gonna be slow while we get to an inciting incident, and I'm sorry for that but I really need to get characters and character relations all in the right places.

They had the debriefing the following morning. Which was unfornature for Clint, because he wasn’t exactly a morning person. They used to do them as soon after the mission as possible, back when it was just the Avengers working together to try and stop trouble, but now they had to wait for Shield to finish cleaning up after them in order to get the most accurate information and summation on the events of the nights mission. 

Clint hadn’t seen the robot since right before the mission, and the only reason he wasn’t concerned about it was the simple fact that no one else was. Bruce and Steve in particular seemed to have taken a shine to the bot and he assumed that if something had gone awry both of them would know or be worried. 

He slipped into the kitchen to grab some breakfast. Judging from the plates in the sink and the soft sounds of the dishwasher most of the others already had. The meeting was in ten or so minutes, so Clint was just shy of running behind. He’d get there in time though, he always did. He popped two pieces of bread into the toaster and reclined against the counter, closing his eyes and stretching out his arms as he let out a long yawn, stretching his mouth as wide open as it could go. 

“We need to talk.”

“Eeep!” Clint leapt away from the counter and flailed around for a moment, accidentally knocking over one of the apples on the counter and then making a dramatic dive to catch it, resulting in him laying down on the kitchen floor, the piece of fruit held protectively and luckily unbruised to his chest. He looked up and felt heat rise to his face - of all people to see him like it had to be the one person that was a even more of a spy than himself. Clint raked a hand down his face as he stood back up and placed the apple on the counter. 

“Your awareness of your surroundings is worse. Should we start training on that again?” Natasha said, looking at him with that slight hint of a smirk. She had done this on purpose and they both knew it. 

“No! No, we definitely don’t need to.” Last time he had taken Natasha up on her perception training she had practically stalked him jumped out to spar with him at all times of day. He hadn’t gotten good sleep for week. Although, the results spoke for themselves afterwards. “It’s just early, Nat. Minds a little cloudy, I’m not quite awake yet.” Clint said with a wave of his hand. 

“But I am serious about needing to talk.” Natasha said, levity in her voice evaporating like dew in the morning sun. Clint’s own smile faltered at that look. He knew she had been off the past couple of days, and had been trying to give her the space she needed instead of hounding her about it. If she was coming forward that meant the situation had changed. 

“What… what’s this about?” Clint said, voice a little quieter. “Is everything okay?” Natasha casually sent her gaze around the room, reaching over and grabbing the toast and handing it to Clint. 

“Let’s go to my room. Quickly. The debriefing is soon.” 

Natasha’s room on the base was even more bare bones than the one at Stark Tower. Really the only thing she had brought with her was a set of clothes and an unorthodox amount of weapons hidden in various places. She closed the door behind Clint as he went and flopped down on the bed. The sheets were immaculately made and in perfect condition. Room hardly looked lived in. Natasha wasn’t sleeping well here. 

“I don’t trust this robot.” Natasha opened with, and Clint just raised an eyebrow and gave a shrug. 

“He’s new, Natasha. You never trust people who are new for you.” He tried to assuage her. It wasn’t the first time they had conversations like this. He knew trust was a tenuous and hard thing for her, and at every turn things seemed to remind her of the Red Room and faces from her nightmares. 

“It’s not that, Clint.” She said firmly. “That isn’t what’s happening here. I’ve caught him, on two separate occasions now, using computers in secret. Trying to get a message out and then, when he fails, erasing the evidence from the computers.” 

“Are you sure?” Clint asked - a dumb question and he knew it. Natasha would never tell him this, accuse one of their team members like this if she wasn’t positive. He felt his stomach sink - he had started to like The Spine and warm up to him. “Do you know who he’s been trying to contact?” 

“He doesn’t leave enough for me to figure it out, but I know that whoever or whatever organization it is goes by the name Rabbit. I’m leaning towards it being a codename of some kind but it’s too soon to say.” Natasha flexed her hand, and Clint knew she wanted the feeling of a knife in it. “I just wanted to tell you.” Clint let a small smile spread across his face. 

“I’m on your side, Nat.” He said, reaching forward and grabbing her hand and giving it a comfortable squeeze. Nat was his closest friend, and he was hers. She was too proud to say it out loud, but Clint had spent years learning to hear Natasha when she lacked the words. “We’ll figure out what’s happening together.” 

Natasha just gives a terse nod, and to anyone else she would seem emotionless and uncaring, but Clint could see the glimmer of thankfulness in her eyes and the way that her shoulders relaxed ever so slightly, like a weight had been diminished. 

“We have to make it to the debriefing.” She said, the ‘thank you’ hidden between the words and in the space between breaths. 

“If I’m late Tony will never let me hear the end of it.” 

oOo

By the time Clint and Natasha got to the debriefing room the others were all already there. Bruce was scribbling something on a whiteboard - he had one brought in special just for this kind of thing. Didn’t like smartboards. Tony and Steve were both sitting on a couch, eating from a bowl of chips with guacamole and salsa. The Spine was off to the side of the room, like he usually was, head tilted down, eyes closed, hands hanging limply at his side. 

“Sorry we’re late, I slept in and Nat had to wake me up.” Clint said casually, heading over and taking a seat on the couch, reaching over eagerly to the chips. Natasha took a seat on one of the chairs, on the opposite side of the room from The Spine. A place where she could survey the whole room and keep everyone in her eyesight. 

“Then we can finally get down to business?” Bruce said, clapping his hands together. From the side of the room there was a series of small whirring noises as Clint looked over just in time to see The Spine’s eyes snap open and head slowly raise. 

“I think we’re good to go green bean.” Tony confirmed. 

“Alright, who wants to go first?”

“I will.” Steve said, raising his hand. Bruce motioned to him. “It was pretty routine. Went in and took down or incapacitated as many men as I could without causing an alarm. But things changed up, uh, once I got to this one room. The room was full of green light, and The Spine had…” Steve casts his eyes over in the direction of the robot, and the expression he made was just barely took quick for Clint to read. “He had already taken care of the guard in the room. The Spine grabbed the light source which we believed was a potentially dangerous power source, and left to return it to the Shield base.”

“The Spine,” Bruce spoke up, looking expectantly at the robot. “You put that somewhere safe, right?” 

“Of course, Doctor.” The Spine gave a stilted nod. “I brought it to the correct Shield officers who have contained it.” He said the words confidently, unwaveringly. But still, Clint couldn’t help but to send a glance at Natasha, the unsaid thought in the air between them, no uncertainty on what message they were conveying. 

Yes, the Spine was a robot. But did that mean that he couldn't lie?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, I hope this chapter was enjoyable! Stay safe. Stay healthy. Comments help me to keep writing this :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce talks to The Spine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's another shorter chapter, and a little stilted, but I just wanted to finish writing it and get it out there. We still have probably a few establishing chapters before we get to something that resembles plot. We're gonna keep kind of time skipping a bit like a couple weeks at a time between the next few chapters, so hold on tight and I hope it makes sense.

Three missions had passed since the robot had begun working with them. There had yet to be a recurrence of the strange green… thing from the first time. Bruce had tried to investigate whatever it had been, but Steve was no expert on that kind of thing and secondhand accounts were hardly believable. He had tried to find it in the Shield database, but there was no evidence. Not an uncommon problem when trying to find information through Shield. They protected things through miles of fire walls and tended to put things in odd or uncommon locations in order to keep it secure. 

It made trying to hunt anything down in their files a pain in the butt. But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t still searching for it. 

Talking to The Spine about the strange green light and object from that first mission was like trying to talk to a brick wall. He was terse and monosyllabic. Not rude, but not accommodating either. Truth be told, Bruce liked The Spine, but there had been sadly little room for them to do anything in the way of bonding. With the others they had little things they did. Movie nights and cooking big breakfasts and little practice training together. Stuff to keep them sane from being cooped up in the Shield base and that helped them to hold together steadfast as a team. 

The Spine had yet to attend any of those team building events. He didn’t eat. Had no interest in movies. Insisted on training on his own. It made Bruce’s attempts to try and get to know him frustratingly stifled. Spine was also quite adept at making himself scarce, disappearing off to who knows where whenever there wasn’t something. Bruce would consider making the team building exercises mandatory as well, just to try and get the team to warm up to the robot, but the past two times they’ve gone out on missions he’s noticed the way that Natasha and Clint look at him. Tony peering at him from the corner of his eyes distrustfully. Forcing them all into the same room was just begging for the tension in the air to explode, perhaps literally. Bruce was not so foolish as to do that. 

But that made it all the better when, by pure chance, Bruce walked in on the robot. It was in one of the communal spaces - one where in place of a TV there were windows, each of which were open letting in a refreshing breeze. Sometimes Bruce forgot how nice fresh air was, after spending hours inside, and even just the feel of it make Bruce spontaneously want to go outside on a walk. 

The Spine sat in a chair, facing away from Bruce and towards the windows. With a few more steps into the room Bruce was able to see what exactly the robot was doing. On the table in front of the robot were several objects. A stress ball, a wine glass, a threadbare teddy bear with mismatched button eyes… there didn’t seem to be a theme with the items or organization with the layout. A plastic toy truck sat next to a fresh apple. As he watched The Spine reached forward and grabbed the apple, picking it up and holding it in his hands. 

“Is this lunch for a robot?” Bruce asked, hoping that the robot would hear the light and joking air in his voice. The robot didn’t seem at all surprised by Bruce’s presence - of course he wasn’t. Bruce had watched the robot on the past couple missions, his awareness of his surroundings at  _ least _ on par with Natasha. 

“I’m running compression tests.” The Spine said simply. There was a small whirring sound coming from the robot, and after a moment it stopped. His grip on the apple slackened and with little warning tossed it towards Bruce. Bruce may not be a field agent, but he did still have good reflexes from training with the others, and before he even fully registered it his hands had snatched the apple out of the air. “Bruises?” 

“I’m sorry?” 

“Are there any bruises?” The Spine asked, nodding towards the apple. Bruce was relieved to feel like he and The Spine had picked up where they had left off last time they had talked alone together. Unlike during briefing meetings and missions The Spine’s face was just a little more relaxed. Instead of the facial plates being tightly pressed together there were visible gaps between them, allowing them to arrange into subtle expressions. Not as emotive as Bruce had a feeling the robot was able to be, but still more relaxed than when he was around the entire team. 

“There aren’t.” Bruce said, with mild fascination as he turned the apple in his hand. “How are you able to tell? Uh, how much you can hold something I mean, without nerves.” He hoped he wasn’t overstepping his boundaries, but he had been curious about The Spine since first laying eyes on him and couldn’t help the words that fell off of his tongue. 

Much to his surprise, The Spine gestured to the chair next to his as a wordless invitation. Bruce was only too happy to take it. After he sat down The Spine held his hand out for Bruce, who cupped it in his own hands.

“There are pressure plates.” The Spine explained as Bruce curiously pushed down on the small segmented sections of the hand, watching them dip down slightly. “We’ve tried calibrating them before, so that I will only use the correct amount of pressure on specific object types. But it never seems to work, and things get too complicated too fast thinking that way. So I have to train myself, sometimes, with how to be gentle and how to have a firm grip that won’t slip but won’t snap something.” 

“What happened there?” Bruce asked curiously, peering up at The Spine’s forearm. There was a plate of metal missing, exposing wires and metal rods. Almost the second the words left his mouth a flush of steam burst from The Spine’s cheek vents and his hand flinched, causing some of the metal rods to jerk. 

“It happened on the last mission.” The Spine said, voice flat, and when Bruce peered back up at the robot the facial plates were once again tight and sealed. It was Bruce’s job during missions to know what everyone was up to, and he was fairly certain that The Spine hadn’t done anything that would result in the damage or removal of a piece of his plating. But seeing the closed off expression again… Bruce wasn’t so eager to uncover that mystery that he was willing to push The Spine back to wherever he disappeared to right when he had decided to come out. 

“I see.” He said, and The Spine’s plates loosened again. “What makes you practice right now?”

“I’ve read your file.” The Spine says instead of an answer, luminous green eyes trained intently on Bruce’s face. “You have… anger issues.” 

“I do.” Bruce replied without hesitation. The Spine stops for a moment, another small wisp of steam escaping from his neck and the spines on his back. 

“Sometimes, when I get caught in a moment, I can forget to listen to the information my pressure plates are telling me. And I hold too hard.” His hand clenched as he said the words, becoming tighter and tighter, until the metal began to squeal in protest. “I do this, to remind myself how delicate things are.” The hand unclenched. 

“If you ever want…” Bruce began, the words out before he had quite solidified his thoughts in his head. “...you can join me sometime. For some of the things I do to help with my anger.” 

“Which would be?” The Spine asked, curiously. One of his hands had reached for the stress ball, seeming to unconsciously slowly squeeze it. 

“Meditation. Video games, on occasion. Mostly Tai Chi.” He explained, scratching at his face. 

“I… I will think about it.” The Spine said, shifting his attention and body language away from the doctor and back to the objects. Conversation clearly over. Bruce stood up and looked down, even as The Spine put down the ball and reached for the teddy bear. The breeze continued to enter the room. Could he feel the breeze? Smell the air? Enjoy the chill?

He left before he could overstay his welcome, knowing that he had a training session with Clint and Steve soon to get to. It was only when he was in the hallway that his mind really began to digest everything that had just happened.

The conversation, while somewhat stilted and awkward, had been nice. The Spine had known the moment he had entered the room, that much had been obvious, but The Spine had been completely adept at avoiding them for the past couple of weeks. He hadn’t been found, except for when he was attending a meeting. Except for when he wanted to be found. 

The only conclusion that Bruce could come to, was that The Spine had intended for someone to come across him, if not Bruce specifically. 

It had been weeks since the robot had arrived to them, who knows how long in that crate, and how long before that working with other Shield teams. Was he the same stand offish with each team? And how long had he been that way? So long spent on his own, surrounded by people that were probably afraid of him or just thought of him as a piece of equipment. 

One question remained prominent in his mind, above all the others. 

Could a robot feel lonely? 

oOo

Two days later, Bruce enters the training room for his Tai Chi session to find The Spine waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spine: It happened during the mission  
> Bruce, knowing it didn't happen during the mission: fine then, keep your secrets
> 
> I hope it was an okay chapter! Stay safe and healthy. Comments help motivate me to keep writing. You have all been so sweet so far, and honestly it's a big reason why the fic has made it this far <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony tries to reconcile the case of The Spine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would say another short chapter but maybe this length is just par for the course right now. We're almost done with the time skip interstitial moments. We have one more and then we're going to get to an actually plot centric couple of chapters, so just hang with me. This chapter wasn't supposed to go this direction but when it started to head this way I decided to just let it. Not my best work, but I hope it does a good job at making sure you know where each of the characters currently stand during this time skip.

Tony has a conspiracy board. Okay, not literally. That would be sloppy and practically begging someone to come in and see it and expose all of his recent thoughts and hypotheses. It was all in his head as he tried to find connections between points and little pieces of evidence he had found. 

Eight missions with the robot. Six months total. Now coming on nine months of Tony being stuck in the Shield base. None of them had really anticipated on being here this long. He missed Stark Tower, and Pepper, and the way that they would all gather in one of the top rooms for a game night and talk and not have to think about any missions or even have to mention the name Hydra. They didn’t even have to be the Avengers there, they could just be a group of people. Of friends. 

Nine months was beginning to weigh on Tony. But Hydra was his, their, responsibility. He knew the others felt the same. It was the only reason they were all still here. But it seemed like the more Hydra agents they found the more leads they go on other places and other bases and the knot got bigger and bigger and somedays Tony thought that they might never be done with this. He hadn’t intended to live here - when he had first come Tony had brought only the bare necessities, thinking that he would help Shield for a week, maybe two tops, and then be back home. Slowly he had brought things from his house, reluctantly and gradually moving into the Shield base that still didn’t feel like home. 

He had now worked with The Spine on eight missions, and rather than feeling any type of closer bond to the robot, his unease and distrust only grew. He had started to develop a list of suspicious behavior from the robot in order to keep his thought process organized and analytical. 

  1. Disappearances



The Robot had a habit of vanishing off the face of the planet as soon as a mission was done. Tony had worked hard to try and find out where he went. According to the Shield files, the robot didn’t have a room - was supposed to be kept in the storage rooms with other equipment between missions. Security cameras mysteriously lost any information on the robot and were useless when trying to track its movements. Bruce and Steve insisted that they both saw the robot fairly regularly, and the only time that Tony was guaranteed a chance to see the robot was when Tony went to Bruce’s Tai Chi sessions. The robot always joined, and Steve had started to as well, making Tony feel rather left out on top of everything else. Again, the robot was managing whether on purpose or unintentionally to prey on Tony’s chief insecurities, meaning Tony had to work extra hard to keep his bias out of his investigation. 

  1. ‘Injuries’



Somehow, after every single mission, within 24 hours the robot would put in a repair request. Tony had been side by side with the robot on several of the missions at this point, and though he wasn’t able to constantly have his eyes on him, he could say pretty securely that thus far The Spine had not been hurt. Hydra agents could barely land a hit on the robot, much less do something that would result in the robot missing pieces of his arms and legs. Yet after every mission he was missing some of his metal plating, and put in order to get pieces to replace them. When they came in it was only ever just barely enough to cover the pieces that were lost - Shield was cheap that way - but it made Tony wonder… what was The Spine doing that was resulting in his plating vanishing. And if they weren’t disappearing, what was he doing with the spare pieces?

  1. Midnight calls



The midnight calls weren’t something he had found out on his own. About two months ago Natasha and Clint had more or less cornered him when he was working on his suit, trying to make it have more efficient energy use and oiling up some joints (he found himself doing that a lot these days, as if it would somehow make the place feel more like home). In hushed and urgent voices they had explained their findings. How the robot, in the dead of the night, would creep into a computer room (rarely the same one more than two times in a row, with little pattern in which one he chose). They had gathered enough information to find that the robot was trying to contact  _ someone _ or  _ something.  _ Who that actually was had yet to become clear, even after them trying to figure it out over the course of several months. The robot was clean, rarely leaving any evidence when he was done. Most of the things they found - save for a few messy little scraps - was shrouded in a thick and impenetrable encryption.

Steve and Bruce were left out of their little group. No because they didn’t trust them, but because of how much they cared for those two. Softer hearts, in some ways. And there was no mistaking the way that they had become attached to the robot. Whenever he was brought up the two of them talked about him fondly, not dissimilar to whenever Thor or Wanda came up in conversation. They had discussed it again and again, and had come to the conclusion that they should wait until they had clear evidence that The Spine was somehow against them or against Shield. 

Truth be told, Tony was pretty sure none of them wanted to break the hearts of their friends. Friendship wasn’t something that was easy to come by, as Avengers and with the history all of them had. Bruce didn’t like getting close to people because they would always run when the big green giant came out. Steve had a hard time relating to anyone after he had woken up on this side of the century. If they had both managed to find someone that went through those walls… was it really so wrong to want to let them have that for just a little longer? Until they had a solid case to present. 

Tony thought he knew how he felt about the robot. 

oOo

“Stay where you are!” Tony shouted, hand extended towards the Hydra agent. He had cornered him in the basement of the old warehouse. The light was dim down there, most of the illumination coming from Tony’s arc reactor, the blue glow coming from his gauntlet, and the sickly green radiance from the Hydra agents gun. It shook in his hand, Tony had him on the ropes. Just one good shot and this would be over. 

Well. Not over. They would finish this mission, go back for a debriefing, and then hop aboard another case. Caught in the middle of this Hydra mess like flies in honey. 

“L-l-let me go.” The Hydra agent was quaking in his boots. The gun was rattling.

“Sorry, can’t talk right now.” Tony said, waiting as his gauntlet reduced it’s charge to a nonlethal range. “We can chat when you’re in your cell.” 

“I’ll shoot!” He yelled, and Tony rolled his eyes. 

“Sure you wi-” Tony wasn’t expecting it. He knew he wasn’t the best at reading people, but he at least was able to tell if a man would shoot a gun. If they could shoot straight. Or at least he thought he did. 

It was a green beam. A lucky shot. It went straight into the arc reactor. 

And. 

Tony’s.

Heart. 

Stuttered.

He went to the ground almost instantly. Sporadic, painful gasps, as if more oxygen would somehow make his non-heart start again. It was darker. Some part of his brain realized that. It was darker because the reactor was dimming, the light dying. Dying. Dying. 

“Tony!” The sound of footsteps. Steve’s voice. He wouldn’t die alone.

“Mr. Stark!” No. Not that voice. He didn’t want that person to be here. He barely managed to get his eyes to focus on the room around him, darkness edging on his vision. But there is the robot, standing over him. From the corner of his vision he can see Steve apprehending the agent. “You will not die here, Mr. Stark.” 

The plating of the robot's hand shifts and slides away, revealing tubes glowing a bright neon blue that circle around its skeletal structure like veins or nerves. They spark slightly, and as the hand moves the blue leaves little after images that seem to contain stars and the infinite of space. The dark clouds threaten to overtake him just as the robot plunges his hand right into the arc reactor, without any hesitation. Spine’s eyes, which are usually such a brilliant emerald green, flare an almost violent blue suddenly. 

It feels like his heart is exploding, and blue light pours out of Tony’s chest. 

oOo

That had been the last thing he had remembered. Within 24 hours he had been given a clean bill of health, and the arc reactor was working nominally. Better than usual, even. Apparently The Spine had collapsed after that, and Steve had waited with both of their limp bodies as he waited for backup. 

Tony had  _ thought _ he knew how he felt about the robot. But the robot had been willing to endanger himself to help Tony. Mentally, Tony took his little list and crumpled and smoothed it back out and then crumpled it again countless times, trying to reconcile his feelings. 

The robot had saved him. 

Where did that put them now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoppy Easter! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and that it brought you some happiness. If you liked it leave a review - honestly they're what keep me writing this fanfiction and I really appreciate them. 
> 
> Stay safe and stay healthy! <3


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and The Spine talk the night before a big mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A dialogue heavy chapter for once! I'm pretty happy with how this one came out. My next chapter might take a while - I have finals to study for and essays to write so that will cut into my fic writing time, sorry :T This is a conversation I've been planning out in my head for a while so I'm happy I finally got around to it.

“Are you doing okay?” Steve let the words hang in the air as long as necessary. The Spine was leaning against the railing of one of the balconies, steam lazily rising from his vents and into the crisp night air. Green eye lights like strange stars against the backdrop of the silky black sky. 

“I’m doing well Steve. Actually, I am worried about you. A mission this big must be harrowing on your nerves.” The Spine replied, voice carefully level and words precise. Steve cleared his throat and rolled his eyes. 

“Spine, I’m fine. Don’t deflect this onto me. I noticed how your face plates closed up during the meeting.” He laid the facts out on the table, keeping eyes carefully on The Spine. 

“Oh, did you?” 

“That and the top of your head.”

“The top of my head?” The Spine finally turned his gaze onto Steve, an eyebrow quirked. 

“You’re, uh, you’re bald.” Steve said the words lamely, gesturing to his own head of hair. “So when you furrow your brows - even a little - it creates this whole train reaction with the line of plates on top of your head and makes it easier to catch.” He explained. It had taken months of spending time with the robot to finally figure out how to read his emotions. When they were alone for things like Tai Chi and the occasional game night between The Spine, Bruce, and Steve they were easy. Telegraphed almost. But whenever The Spine was around the others (Natasha, Clint, Tony, any Shield official) his face clammed up. The plates simply didn’t move as much, and Steve had to pay extra close attention in order to see the shifts that they made. 

“You got me, huh?” The Spine said, and he let out a sigh and clouds of steam exitted from his face plates. 

“Bruce said tomorrow is going to be the biggest mission we’ve gone on.” Steve let his gaze wander out to look at the city. “Hydra’s communication base. Or at least one of them. If we do this right it could lead us to almost all the other branches of Hydra. It’s big. It’s okay if it intimidates you.” 

“I’ve been on big missions before.” He said the words, and Steve froze. 

It had been eight months since The Spine had become a part of their team. Probably onto five months since Steve had managed to get him to hang out with him for reasons beside missions and meetings. And while they did talk it was rare for The Spine to talk about - or even to mention - anything related to his time before emerging from the crate eight months ago. Little scraps had been said, peppered into conversation often so casually and so quickly that if Steve wasn’t paying attention he might have missed them. A family was mentioned. Large and extensive with many, many Peters. Five siblings at the least, always referred to in a fond and somewhat homesick tone. The first time one of them came up he had called them his ‘fellow automaton creations’. The first time he called them his sibling he had flinched and instantly tried to backtrack, as if he could pluck the word out of the air and retract it. So some people must have had problems with a robot having human-like relations, which frankly, was just silly. The names he kept track of, because it felt like someone besides The Spine should know that he was not alone. Rabbit, Zero, Hatchworth (sometimes Hatchy - but only ever sarcastically), The Jon, and Upgrade. Each one full of personality and practically bursting with energy if the stories were anything to go off of. 

Nothing was ever said of his creator. How The Spine had ended up with Hydra. How long he had been doing this - passed from team to team. So Steve waited patiently, letting Spine take his time. He didn’t want to say something and scare off Spine, make him retreat back into his stone faced self that he became around others. 

“I’ve been to wars before.” The Spine says the words out loud, flexing one of his hands. From this vantage point, with The Spine’s head facing that way, Steve can just barely catch a glimpse of The Spine’s neck from under the collar of his jumpsuit. A piece of the plating is missing. 

“Wars… plural?” Steve pushes, just slightly, when Spine lets his voice fade out and doesn’t pick back up the conversation. 

“We have been contracted to the government as weapons for… a long time. We were willing to, at first. It would help the rest of our family, even if it put us in danger and through some… some hard times. Something happened, and we tried to get out of it. Instead they just wound us up in it tighter. And then they took us, and the sold off the contract and separated us and made us…” The Spine made a sound, like air getting caught in his throat, and Steve looked up to see something dark and viscous had began to drip down his face. Steam escaping from his dark lips. “...they made us kill.” 

He raised his hands and made to try and wipe away the dark substance, but it only seemed to spread and continued to gush out of his eye sockets. Steve reached out a hand, not sure what to say as he slowly began to realize what he was seeing. They were tears. The Spine was crying tears made of oil. If Bruce was here he knew what questions he would be asking. Did The Spine have tear ducts? How did this relate to The Spine’s internal components? Had he been made to cry or as a sentient being had his make up adapted to incorporate it? 

But Steve could only see the tears of a friend in front of him. 

With careful but quick movements he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bandana. It was an American flag one, given to him by Tony a year or so ago. He had started to keep it on hand as a good luck charm. It certainly was coming in handy now. Steve raised it up to The Spine’s face, doing his best to clearly telegraph his movements and intentions. The Spine still flinched away, for a brief moment, and Steve froze in place. But then in the next moment The Spine was leaning in closer as his body shook, metal frame creaking and rattling, as he let Steve attempt to mop up the tears. 

“I don’t get the same rights and demands that you guys do.” The Spine sobbed, voice thick. And Steve’s eyebrows raised as he realized that that same thick oil was now dripping from The Spine’s mouth. “I can’t… I can’t demand that they can’t tell me to kill. They expect me to kill if I have to. And I’ve managed to avoid it up to this point but tomorrow is a big mission and… and they might demand it.” 

“Spine…” Steve whispered, feeling tears prick at his own eyes in response to the other’s pain. 

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Rogers, I shouldn’t be telling you this. This is confidential information. And as a weapon for your team this is irrelevant to-”

“Don’t Mr. Rogers me.” Steve berated, and lightly shoved The Spine’s shoulder. “I’m Steve to you, you know that. I’ll be there with you tomorrow, a comm call away. If you need back up I’ll be there. I’ll help you avoid having to get blood on your hands. I’ve been there before.” He looked The Spine in the eyes. “I don’t know what you’ve been through, Spine, but I’ve been a puppet for others before. And done things that I regret. I’m here for you.” The Spine nodded, pulling away from Steve for a moment and straightening back up, tilting his head to the sky, eyes closed. Slowly the steam slowed and the leaking stopped. He tugged down one of his sleeves and used it to finish cleaning up his face. 

“Sorry, Steve-”

“Stop apologizing. It’s not a bad thing to show emotions, Spine. I’m not expert, but I think somewhere along the way someone made you think it is. But it’s never wrong to feel things, especially not in front of your friends.” 

“I’m embarrassed you had to see that.” The Spine says, and at least it’s better than him apologizing. 

“Crying is something every person does.” 

“Not every person loses control of their oil fuelage pump and begins to have it leak out of their mouth.” There was a short burst of steam from The Spine’s cheek vents - something that Steve had come to know was synonymous with a person blushing. 

“Is that a common problem?” He asked, tilting his head to the side. The Spine made it sound like it was something he was tired of. 

“It used to be, back when I was new. But through the hard work of myself and my father it’s become something that rarely happens. Unless I’m overly emotional.” 

“Been a rough little while?” Steve asked. The Spine had gone back to leaning against the railing. 

“I miss my siblings. My sister in particular. Rabbit was always there for me. We were rarely apart before getting contracted by the government. She’s older than me, been there for me my entire life.”

“Well… you’re not alone when it comes to missing people.” Steve said wistfully. The Spine turned his green eyes back to Steve, expression tender and soft. 

“Do you want to talk about them?” He asked gently. It took Steve a moment, trying to get his vocal chords to cooperate. But The Spine was at patient as Steve had been just a moment earlier. The tricky little robot, so easily turning the conversation around like he always did. But the truth was, Steve  _ wanted _ to talk about them. Especially to someone like The Spine, who had made it clear he saw Steve as a person, and not as Captain America. 

“Peggy was… unlike anyone I’ve ever known….” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! If you did please think about writing a review - it's really what motivates me to keep writing this fic, especially with all the homework I have going on. And next chapter should be a Big and Exciting one, so get ready! 
> 
> Stay safe, stay healthy!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha gets answers and draws conclusions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally and a good length chapter! I'm pretty happy with this one and it felt really good to finally write for this fic after spending lots of time finishing up an essay for one of my classes. I hope you like the chapter!

The Communication Base is larger than any of the Hydra hideouts they had infiltrated in the past year or so. That was one of the things that helped to make this mission seem big and important. And different. It had been long months working for Shield, and to a certain extent the worst part was that, if they did their job right, this had the potential of extending their partnership for several more months, for years and years to come. The mere thought of spending another year or more within the confines of Shield’s base and watching as her friends continued to wilt inside of those stark white walls. But the spy and assassin she had been raised to be roughly shoved those emotions aside. The Hydra problem was bigger than any of them. 

They hadn’t managed to find any blueprints of the place, but at least they had an approximate knowledge of what the room should look like and how to know when they had arrived. None of them entered through the same entrance, with the logic that by splitting up they would cover the most ground. This time they weren’t supposed to be concerned about catching the Hydra agents as much - if they could it was a bonus, for sure, but they weren’t supposed to lose sight of the main goal. Find the main communication terminals, as soon as they arrive notify the others and send out a ping that would help the others find them. Load up the hard drives they had on them with the information, or is possible take the physical Hydra harddrives themselves. As soon as that was done, get out as fast as possible. 

Natasha worked quickly and methodically, taking the base room by room and incapacitating any who stood in her way. This mission was more important than the scales that sat heavy in her heart as she raised her gun and watched the blood splatter on the wall. She could feel her emotions and heart falling to the wayside as the Black Widow inside of her rose up from where she tried to compartmentalize it deep inside of herself. 

“Any luck so far?” Steve called through the comms unit. Natasha could just make out the grunts of someone engaged in combat on the side of the line. 

“I’ve found a lot of rooms with computers, but nothing that matches with the specs we were given.” Tony reported, and she could hear from Clint’s end the sound of him clicking his tongue in frustration. 

“This place is huge - it feels like I’ve been running around forever and I have yet to run into any of your guys or anyone that you’ve beaten up.” 

“Stay focused.” Natasha said, at the last minute remembering to add a little emotion behind the words. Clint would know something was wrong right away if she didn’t, and he’d try to find her and team up together and make things easier on her. He was thoughtful, that way, but she couldn’t allow him to do that and compromise the mission. 

“Yes ma’am.” Tony responded and she could imagine him giving her a mock salute even as he kicked down a door. 

The Spine didn’t respond. He didn’t always take comm units when he went out with them, but Fury himself had enforced the use of them this time. Typically he just hacked into their communication system when he needed to talk to them, but for all Natasha knew he had put the little earbud into his pocket and chosen not to tap in this time. She flexed her fingers reflexively as anger broiled over her like hot flames searing her skin, as often was the case these days when she thought of The Spine. Months upon months of careful watch and attempts to track down and she still didn’t know who he was working for or what his attentions were. He was a robot, surely he had some kind of primary or secondary objective. 

It was as she was mulling this over, after having traversed down a hallway that was longer than the others and had held no less than five men in it, that she came to the room. 

Different than all the rooms that came before it, the ceiling was high above her and less confining. The better for the long spindly wires that came out of the walls and stuck into the monolith like tower in the middle, various lights blinking on and off and the low hum heard as the communication hub lit up her otherwise dim surroundings.

She was not the first one to find this. Natasha knew that immediately as her eyes caught on the forms of limp bodies decorating the floor and splayed across control panels. Even amid the assortment of colored lights she could make out the two perfect green ones, looking out blankly across the room. Not at her. Not yet. 

Black Widow carefully crossed the threshold, analyzing the situation that lay before her. The Spine stood in the middle of the room, back facing the communication hub, and she would be almost inclined to think that maybe he was waiting, maybe he had already called for backup and she had just somehow missed it. Except there were the wires, sticking out of his head, where the plating had been moved, connecting him directly to the hub. She could even hear him, muttering lightly to himself. 

“...still bouncing back, dammit. Let’s try adding this and taking out that and putting it through that satellite instead and…” 

In an ideal world she would have waited first. Natasha wasn’t one to jump the gun, but there was the evidence right in front of her, and The Spine was distracted, and there would never be a better moment than right now. 

“Do not move, The Spine.” She had moved before even fully registering it. Pulling the knife out of her boot and easily slotting it in between The Spine’s neck plates. With a feather touch hold she could feel the wiring that it was up against. A simple flick of her wrist and whatever it was would be cleanly severed. There was no way to tell what kind of damage it would do, but hopefully enough to incapacitate. 

“Miss Widow.” The Spine replied. No fear or emotion colored his words, but she could feel the wires beneath her blade vibrate. How very much like vocal chords. Almost human. Almost. 

“You found this room quickly. Familiar with the place?” Familiar with Hydra was the unsaid question that was in the air between them. Natasha cast a glance at the long chords still trailing out of The Spine’s head. In the back of her mind she wondered if she should try and tear them out or not. Was he downloading information right now? Uploading information right now? Would slicing through them hurt him, and did she want it to hurt him?

“I’m good at hacking into databases. We’ve worked together long enough you know I can do that. The blueprints were there. Nothing was labeled but I was able to deduce which room the hub was most likely to be in.” 

“Don’t feed me that-”

“It’s the truth-”

“You know that’s not what I’m asking, The Spine.” She raised her voice ever so slightly, letting the icy daggers edge their way into her tone. The Spine’s eyes, which had been facing forward the entire time, darted to her face and away from it in a fraction of a second. Whether that was a glance of calculation or emotion Natasha couldn’t tell.

“I am not working with Hydra, Miss Widow.” 

“Then why didn’t you alert us when you found the communication hub? Why are you currently connected to it?”

“I can explain-” The Spine started to say, but she cut him short, temper running quick and hot. She looked at the robot in front of her and could also see a traitor. An enemy. Someone who was putting those that she held closest to her heart in danger. She didn’t want to hear an excuse from him, she wanted answers. She wanted him away from those that she held dear. 

“Who have you been trying to talk to at nights at the Shield base? What was the green core you found? How did you know it? Who sent you to Shield and what is your mission here? What keeps happening to your plating that you need to constantly replace it?” 

The words left Natasha’s mouth, and when he looked back at The Spine she didn’t recognize the robot in front of her. 

His calm exterior was nowhere to be seen. Any semblance of a poker face had vanished and was replaced with an expression that was achingly human. The Spine’s eyes were focused on her, shock and sorrow and defeat clearly displayed with the droop of his face plates, the tilt of his eyes, his mouth slightly open. 

“N-N-Na M- Miss Widow.” It was like it physically pained him to speak, and even his voice was one Natasha had never heard, so full of emotion. “The Green Core. It w-w-w-wasss a da-n-nnnnngerrr.” He gritted his teeth in frustration. Natasha thought about pulling back her knife slightly and giving him a little more space, but she knew what he was capable of and wasn’t willing to give him anything close to a change to flip the situation on her. “I had-d-d to ke-e-e-p it safe. I’ve seen-n wh-what it can d-d-do. I’ve be-e-en build-d-ding somethi-thi-thing to contain it.”

“So you didn’t hand it over to Shield.” 

“N---no, I-”

“You lied to me. You lied to all of us.” He shuddered beneath her knife, and she was unsure if it was because of her words or whatever had started the strange stutter in his voice. 

“Natasha?” Standing in the doorway of one of the entrances, haloed by the blinking miscellaneous lights, was Steve. Shield held in one hand, looking at her with confusion. “The Spine? How long have you been here?” He took a few steps forward, eyes adjusting to the dim light, and Natasha could tell the exact moment that he noticed the knife she currently had slitted into The Spine’s neck. “What’s going on?”

“St-Steve.” The Spine said, voice clearer by a margin. A quick look told Natasha that he had managed to compose himself to a certain extent again. 

“He’s been lying to us.” Natasha said. No point drawing this out. She hated to hurt him like this but she couldn’t shelter him from the truth any longer.

“What?” 

“He never gave the green core to Shield. He’s had it the whole time. And he’s been trying to contact someone - someone hard to reach - when he thinks no one’s looking.” The pain is evident on Steve’s face, his eyes searching The Spine as if there was an alternative answer he would find there. 

“Spine… is that true?” The Spine’s thin rubber lips pressed tightly together into a dark line. 

“Steve--e I-”

“Is it true, Spine?” The hardened voice of Captain America rang through the room. 

“Y…” The Spine lowers his eyes, unable to meet Steve’s. “Yes.” 

In a better scenario, in a better life, one that was not Natasha’s, there is more time there. To talk and resolve things and clarify. 

Instead the doors burst open and a dozen of Hydra agents flood into the room, guns raised and aiming to kill. Natasha worked on instinct, without even thinking. She pulled the knife out of The Spine, prioritizing the clearly hostile Hydra for the so far still robot. Spine had yet to actively attack her, so she would turn her back to him and hope for the best. 

She had expected him to take his chance and run, as she saw from the corner of her eye as he yanked out the wires and the plating on his head returned to normal. Natasha would let him, and eventually she would chase him down and make him pay for the pain that was clear on Steve’s face even as he fought his way over to Natasha, wading through the hostile agents. 

“Natasha!” Steve called. Dammit. She had let herself get distracted by Steve and her concern for his safety both physically and emotionally. 

Black Widow turned, just in time to hear three loud blasts. They hit something that was not her flesh. Punctured through steel plating, the strange green energy eating away at the metal like a slowly burning piece of paper. The Spine hits the floor, large holes taken out of him, eyes dark, body limp. 

It doesn’t make sense. She had just exposed him as a traitor. He should have escaped. Or he could have let the Hydra agents get Natasha and Steve and killed off the two people that he was aware knew of his betrayal. Saving her, sacrificing himself for her, didn’t make sense. 

Unless… 

Unless Natasha had been wrong about The Spine. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you did leave a review - they really are what get me to keep writing this fic. 
> 
> Stay safe, stay healthy.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fall out of the last chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not in love with how this chapter turned out, but at least it's written. Sorry for the long gap between chapters, finals has been rough on ya girl.

Clint paced. There was little else he could do, and the feeling of uselessness made his skin crawl. 

Bruce had yet to really say any words, sitting on the couch with his head buried in his hands. Every now and then he would raise it and look at the table in front of him, where The Spine was laid out. Clint was no doctor, and was no mechanic, but he knew at least when something looked bad. Most of The Spine’s torso was missing, two shots from the strange green guns of the Hydra agents having hit him and deteriorated straight through his wiring and circuitry and steel plating. The bottom half of the robot was hardly connected at this point - Clint had no idea how Natasha and Steve had managed to carry him out with accidentally having the robot return in multiple pieces. One other shot had gone right through the robot’s head, taking out at least an entire eye. From Clint’s unprofessional opinion it appeared that most of the internal wiring inside of the steel skull had survived, but then again The Spine had yet to boot up again. 

His eyes kept on landing at the glimpse of something blue and bright and glowing from the interior of the chest cavity. Clint knew better than to touch it, and wouldn’t dare go near the piece of The Spine. Bruce practically bristled any time anyone came even close to the body, except for Steve, but Clint could tell that was on thin ice. 

When they had met back up at the Shield base Natasha had been the one to relay the story and break the news. Steve looking off to the side, sad and mournful and unable to look at the body of The Spine. The two of them had gotten out first - retrieving what they needed to from the Communication Hub and bringing the limp body of the robot back to the base. 

“You knew this was going to happen.” Bruce finally says, and Natasha twitches. Tony pauses from where he was, off to the side idly working on repairing one of the boots of his suit. Clint is a grown man, but he instantly feels like a child caught with their hand in that cookie jar. Steve is suddenly present again, head going from side to side, looking at the clear evidence to back up Bruce’s claim that was written on all of their faces. 

“We’ve suspected for some time.” Natasha admitted, and though her voice didn’t waver she brushed her thumb over her fingers, a small flash of guilt if you knew where to look for it. “Although… I am not sure of his intentions now.” 

“What?!” Tony exclaimed, standing up, the metal he was working on hitting the floor with a loud clang. “The facts seem clear to me. You guys found him in there already downloading information or something. He admitted that he didn’t turn in the green power core he found and has been keeping it somewhere this whole time. So maybe he doesn’t work for Hydra, but it just probably means he works for someone else.” Tony’s head looked down at the floor, hands clenched and shoulders shaking as the next words came through his gritted teeth. “There’s always someone else. There’s always going to be something else.” 

“That’s what I thought. But a spy or double agent… they don’t save you after they’ve been found out.” 

“What?” The word tumbled out of Clint’s mouth this time, and he felt his eyebrows raise to somewhere in his hairline. She hadn’t mentioned that earlier. 

“That’s how he got damaged. He took a hit - multiple hits - for me.” Her eyes trailed over the robots body. She hadn’t mentioned this at first, when going over what had happened. Clearly it was something her mind was still spinning its wheels on, trying to reconcile it with the data they had been gathering for months now. “I think… I may have drawn some incorrect conclusions. Let myself become jaded.” 

“What organization do you think he’s working for?” Bruce asked, unable to meet Natasha’s eyes. It was clear he was taking this whole thing very hard. 

“Well from what we’ve gathered The Spine has been making attempts to reach out and get in contact with something. We assume the people that sent him here. Clearly it’s something that Shield has been actively preventing him from reaching, considering even he was unable to get a single message out over the course of the so many months.” Clint explained, speaking up now that Natasha had fallen silent, mulling things over, thoughts racing behind her dark eyes. 

“The name?” Bruce asked, just shy of a demand.

“We only managed to get some sort of code name.” Tony spoke up this time. “Rabbit.” 

“Pffft… ha… hahaha…” Clint’s head snapped over to the side. Steve had his head in his hands, shoulders shaking up and down. His face lifted up to show an expression that was like a stab to Clint’s heart. It was an expression somehow simultaneously full of humor and overwhelmed with sorrow and pain. He continued to laugh, even as tears came to his eyes. 

“The Spine was trying to contact Rabbit?” 

“You know the organization?” Tony asked urgently. Clint glanced over at Bruce to see the doctors shoulders tense, his hand had reached out and was firmly grasping the limp hand of the robot. 

“Rabbit…” Steve said, taking a deep breath, laughter stopping and tears still shining in his eyes. “...is The Spine’s sister.” 

“His what?” Natasha’s voice was sharp. Clint could feel a similar feeling of shock blooming in his chest. 

“I didn’t think… he’s a robot he can’t…” A look from Bruce and Clint decided not to finish the sentence. 

“He never mentioned a family.” Tony said instead. 

“He doesn’t like to talk a lot about himself.” Steve explained. “He didn’t talk about his family much, but every now and then…” Steve walked towards the robot. “Rabbit is also working for Shield right now, but from what I know, they don’t let him and his family have any form of communication.” 

“And if he’s been working for Shield for a long time then…” Tony put aside his work. 

“Then it’s been a long time since he’s seen them.” Clint finished. The pieces were suddenly coming together, and guilt like a dagger stuck into his stomach. “Oh God…” 

“This is my fault.” Natasha’s eyes lingered on the metallic man. “He’s been on our side since the beginning. And now he is hurt because of me.” Her face scrunched up as emotion managed to break through her mask. “I can’t fix him - none of us know how.” 

“Someone knows how.” Bruce said, standing up, still holding The Spine’s hand, as if it could provide the robot comfort. 

“Who?” Tony asked. “If you’re thinking of me, as much as it pains me to admit it, I just don’t know enough about The Spine’s makeup to be of much help. Especially with that hole in his head.” 

“None of us can help. But I’m sure The Spine’s sister can.” 

oOo

It was tricky work, but time and time again it was proven that together they could accomplish almost anything. Tony and Natasha came forward with the scraps of code that they had found during their investigation of The Spine, and then Bruce and Tony worked to recreate them. The walls that had been built up to prevent the communication were difficult to navigate, especially without tripping any alarms, but it appeared that they were also really specific to make things difficult for The Spine. 

Clint walked the halls of the base, knowing he wouldn’t be much help when it came to working through coding. It wasn’t aimless walking though, it was searching. It didn’t take very long for Clint to find what he was looking for. 

He could hear her before he could see her. Natasha had gotten changed into lightweight clothing, carefully bandaged her hands and feet, and was working on brutalizing a punching bag. The few hairs that had escaped her tight ponytail clung to her forehead with sweat, her face red from exertion, but she didn’t pause. Continued her pattern, the dull thuds as she made contact with the heavy bag. 

Even from his distant vantage point, Clint could see the scarlet that was leaking through the bandages, speaking of split skin and bruised knuckles. 

This wasn’t training, this was a self inflicted punishment. 

“Nat…” Clint muttered as he approached her. She didn’t respond, just launched herself at the punching bag all the harder. “Natasha.”

“Not now.” She gritted out through clenched teeth.

“You need to stop.” 

“No.” 

“You’re hurting yourself.” Clint let his concern for her fill her words. Her breath hitched. 

“Good.” A gasp from her mouth. “I- I deserve it.” 

“No, you don’t.” Clint said firmly. He placed his hand over her fist, stopping it before she could pound it into the stiff leather. 

“I messed up.” Natasha said, brow furrowed. “If I had just communicated with Steve and Bruce, we could’ve avoided this. If I had given The Spine a real chance.” 

“You did what you thought was best, Nat.” Clint felt frustration edge its way up his spine. He wanted to know the right thing to say right here. They were both at fault, really. But Natasha always took these kind of things too hard, proven by her hands that were shaking. He wouldn’t be surprised if some of the fingers were already starting to fracture. This kind of self punishing behavior was something she had gotten from dark places in her past, and it hurt him to see it rise up like this and take hold of her. 

“Natasha, come on, let’s clean up your hands-”

“Guys!” Steve stood in the doorway, panting, eyes wide. 

“What is it?” Natasha asked, and her expression was once again guarded, easily slipping her hands into her pockets where Steve wouldn’t be able to see the red stains. 

“They’ve got it- Bruce and Tony are going to open communication. They think we should all be there.” Clint and Natasha shared a brief look before hurrying after Steve, speeding through the familiar hallways. He was willing to put aside the discussion for now, but not forever. 

Bruce and Tony stood shoulder to shoulder, hands flying over the controls in front of them. Occasionally one hand would fly off to the side and punch in some information into a holo-screen. 

“Good, you guys are here.” Tony said without even looking back. “Because we do this now or we do this never. Bruce, if you’d do the honors.” Bruce typed in a few last command lines and then, with a very final press of an enter key, the screen above them changed to become completely black save for a few white letters. ‘Establishing connection…’ flashing across the screen, a strange logo fading in and out of focus in the background.

“H-h-h-how did you f-f-find thi-s-s freq-q-quency?” A feminine voice demanded. 

“Rabbit, I assume? We’re working with your brother The Spine, and he needs your help.” 

There was a small pause, as the person on the other side of the line seemed to mull over what they had said. Clint wished they could see her face, try to gather if she was angry or shocked or indecisive. Finally her voice crackled back over the communication system, firm and leaving no room for argument.

“Tel-l-ll me everything.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! IF you did give me a review - they're really what motivate me to keep writing this thing. 
> 
> hope you all are doing okay - stay healthy and stay safe <3


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rabbit arrives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually pretty fond of this chapter and how it came out - I hope you also enjoy it!

Bruce hadn’t wanted to bring Shield in on this. He didn’t trust them and their prying eyes and their half truths and the way that through guilt and contracts and winding words held people hostage within their walls. But him and the others had talked one another into circles over and over again. From what they would tell Rabbit was more or less owned by Shield. Getting her to this base from wherever it is she was currently stationed without alerting the higher ups was pretty much impossible. 

They were lucky they had a lot of sway within Shield. Tony, who had put in the request, used his analytical mind to make it seem logical. A good use of resources. When Fury had found out what had happened with The Spine (minus any of the stuff about the missing green core or Natasha’s incorrect conclusions about him being a double agent) he had not taken to it well. ‘Expensive equipment’ He had said. ‘Completely irresponsible’. Initially he had told them to turn The Spine back in. By contract Shield has not allowed to do anything with him and they intended to hold onto his ‘scraps’ (Fury’s words, not Bruce’s, and how they had made his blood boil and had to do several deep breaths in order to get his complexion away from that damn green ton) until the contract was up. The robots weren’t supposed to be in the same room or have any communication, Fury justified it as careful treading after the Ultron incident. 

But backing down was not an option. Not after they had all heard Rabbit’s voice, and the way her nonexistent breath had hitched when they had described her brother’s condition to her. If there was any doubt for any of them at this point on The Spine and subsequently Rabbits sentience and personhood that conversation had surely erased any lingering pieces of hesitance. These weren’t robots, these were people. People made of metal, sure, but people all the same. 

They won the argument with Shield, though. And Bruce stood outside, Natasha and Tony at his side, as the large truck with the Shield logo loudly embossed on the side of it stopped by the side door they were in front of. By the looks of the truck it was probably some kind of delivery truck, meant to deliver packages to the different Shield bases. The back rolled up and a figure hopped out before the truck sped off, carrying on its way without so much as a glance back. 

The person stumbled a bit at first and then knelt down, pulling up their pant leg and fiddled with something before straightening back at. A white hand snapped up to her forehead. 

“R-r-r-rabbit, reporting f-for dut-t-ty.” 

She doesn’t look like Bruce had expected. Most of her plating was covered in a pristine white finish, so very different from the pure steel look of The Spine. There remained several small pieces of copper plating that was still exposed, many of them half tarnished giving it an iridescent blue/brown quality. She had dark hair that fell down her shoulders, and Bruce couldn’t help but to wonder if it was directly attached to her scalp or not. Mismatched blue and green eyes looked at Bruce and the others with little telling of her emotions. Her uniform was the same as The Spines - a simple jumpsuit that was usually issued to the lowest ranking Shield employees. 

For all that Rabbit looked different from The Spine, there was still the after image of her brother in her features. The shape of her face. The slope of her nose. Bruce would not be surprised if he found out that their faces had been created from the same real life model or at least made side by side. ‘Like twins’ he couldn’t help but to think to himself. 

“Thank you for coming, Rabbit.” Natasha broke Bruce out of his internal thoughts as she took a step forward and extended a hand. “I’m Natasha - we spoke over the communication system.” As soon as she mentioned being the one to have contacted Rabbit illegally a week or so ago the tension and tightness of Rabbit melted away in the blink of an eye. Her hand fell from its salute and clasped Natasha’s face suddenly overwhelmingly full of emotion. Nothing like the rare glimpses of feeling that the The Spine gave. 

“Ms. Na-NA-natasha.” Rabbit said, smiling broadly. “It is so go--od to speak to you.” 

“Tony Stark.” He took a step forward to also shake the robots hand, and Bruce could see the way that his eyes roved over the robot. Undoubtedly already comparing the design differences between Rabbit and her brother. Already Bruce could see she gave off much more steam, bursts coming out every time she stuttered, and rather than the hydraulic sound Bruce had come to associate with The Spine there was a soft hum and click reminiscent of clock work. His questions multiplied. 

“And I’m Bruce Banner.” 

“Introductions-s-s are good and al-l-l but-”

“You want to see The Spine.” Tony said, nodding sympathetically. “I would also rather we weren’t so out in the open. Come on, we’ll show you to where he is.” All four of them quickly re-entered the base, and Bruce kind of hated the fact that he had been here for so long the white walls brought him a sense of safety. 

“I should warn you, he is in bad shape.” Natasha said. They were moving fast, just short of a run really. 

“Like we said, he hasn’t been functional… oh god - are we leading you to your brothers’ corpse?” Bruce said, the words spilling out before he could stop them as the thought popped into his head. Another large burst of steam came from Rabbit. 

“Spine’s bet-t--ter than that.” She said the words confidentally, but then Bruce turned to see a slight hesitation cross her face. “If he is that far gone… I want to know now. Rather than get the news-s fa-a-ar after the fact. On-ly finding out on-n-nce I got home. Or lear-rn the news when I can-n-n’t be there with what’s left of him-m.” 

Those words were like watching the tip of a passing iceberg and not knowing how colossal it was underneath the waves. There was depth there, and Bruce didn’t have the time or finesse to approach it cautiously. 

“Through this door.” Natasha said, opening said door and gesturing for Rabbit to enter first. Bruce wished there was time to ease her into this, it was all happening so fast and had to be quite a shock. But he knew that if any of the others were hurt he would want to get in the same room with them and see the situation with his own eyes as soon as possible. 

Rabbit didn’t even hesitate as she entered the room, smoothly going straight to the body of The Spine which was laid out on the slab. They had moved him into one of Tony’s favorite work rooms, where they knew he would be safe. Tony had long before the incident hacked into all of the security for the block of rooms, meaning that they weren’t quite leaving The Spine in the hands of Shield as long as he was in this room. They tried to leave the body alone for the most part and not tamper with it, save for coming in periodically to check on the levels of his water tank. 

“S-Spine? Spine… a-a-are any parts of you st-still online?” No response, just like all the times that they had checked. The tanks fluctuating levels said that  _ something _ was taking up power, but they hadn’t been able to find what. 

“We’ve tried talking to him.” Steve explained. Both the good Captain and Clint had been waiting in the room. Bruce watched the way that both their eyes looked up and down Rabbit, taking their own turn at analyzing and drawing conclusions about the new robot. 

Rabbit gave a small nod to signal that she heard Steve. She leaned in closer, and Bruce could see that, amidst all the emotion that must have been brewing in Rabbit that she carefully was looking The Spine over with a critical eye. One of her hands hovered over the open hole of his stomach, looking at the small pieces that connected the torso to the legs. 

“...y-y-your blue core’s so ex-exposed…” Rabbit murmured. “...you look like some robot slut.” Her mouth quirked up slightly at her own joke before falling again as she went to analyze the large hole in his head. “Took out quite a bit of your neural wiring… I wonder if…” She closed her mouth and shifted her expression. 

Then, just barely parting her lips, she whistled. 

At first nothing happened, and Bruce watched as her expression fell. Then the smallest bit of steam, and a few, two or three, of the dark wires within The Spine’s skull lit up a vibrant blue. None of his plating moved, but there was the small hiss as something internal shifted slightly. Three clear and bright whistles came from The Spine, having an underlying tinny sound as they tried to escape from his closed mouth. 

Rabbit’s face instantly brightened up, a wide smile breaking out on her face. The blue wires slowly dimmed until they no longer held any more of the light, The Spine once again silent, but what had just happened was unmistakable. 

“I knew tha-a-a-at you wouldn-n-t go down th-th-that easy.” Rabbit said triumphantly, placing a hand on The Spine’s chest and closing her eyes, a single oily tear escaping from her eye. 

“So he’s okay?” Steve asked eagerly, leaning forward. Rabbit straightened from her diagnosis of The Spine. 

“What was that? Was that good?” 

“I me-ean, he’s probably in al-al-alot of pain right now. But-t at least some portion of his personality ma-ma-matrix is still intact.” She said with confidence, giving a grin. “He’s not okay right now… but-t-t he’s goi-goi-going to be.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked it leave a comment - it really helps me to want to keep writing this fic! 
> 
> I hope you are all in good health and are taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. 
> 
> Have a great day!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope this helped with ya'll's quarantine! Let me know if you liked it was a comment - gives me motivation to keep going on ya feel?


End file.
